Global communications company, Avaya Inc., and its South African distribution partner, Kathea, announced Wednesday that Avaya’s converged communications system for office applications — IP Office — is now locally available.
The companies say that this solution is targeted at small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and or branch offices of global enterprises in this country, and delivers an all-in-one communication backbone — with the features that any professional office environment looking for more than just a PBX would require.
Says MD of Avaya sub-Saharan Africa, Alain Schram: “As the name suggests, IP Office is a PBX system which provides its rich functionality across the IP network, which has fast become a must-have component of modern business. The system allows a company, no matter what size, to take advantage of cost-saving voice communications, Internet access and e-mail communications through a single, centrally-managed device.”
According to the companies, IP Office enables organizations and small/micro businesses access to a single cabling infrastructure for voice and data, with a central point of administration and remote maintenance via a LAN, WAN or analogue modem. Additionally, they say, this product enables companies to take advantage of VoIP functionality, optimized bandwidth allocation and a single connection to public networks, which saves on rental costs.
“Often so-called next generation products are only a voice solution which happens to deliver IP Telephony. If a company wants to add a hub, Gateway, router, firewall, Internet access, Remote Access Server, or Data WAN connectivity they will need to access and maintain separate devices. This potentially also means different management interfaces. However, through Avaya IP Office these components are included as standard with one management interface — all of which reduces Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and delivers a solid CRM solution for the SME market,” adds Al McKie, Avaya Business Development at Kathea.
The product is claimed to be perfectly suited to organizations with communications environments that include: PABX’, call centers or integration into the Microsoft CRM application, giving a company integrated management capabilities within its communications environment. Kathea says that the company will be driving the product through its national base of accredited partners.
