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PricewaterhouseCoopers Deploys Avaya Converged System in BeijingBY JOHANNE TORRES TMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced in a press release today that it is integrating Avaya Inc.’s voice and data converged communications systems in its new office building in Beijing, China. According to the release, PwC recently moved offices in Beijing to the Beijing Fortune Plaza, taking up seven floors in a 20,000 square meters area, making it the largest of all PwC offices in Asia Pacific. According to the new agreement, Avaya deployed a converged communications system featuring, among other things, mobility, multi-media e-mail and conferencing. The new system will enable PwC employees to use IP telephones to access staff personalized info and work in a mobile way within the whole office. When working out of the office, staff can still access all the applications through IP Softphone, including contact info for colleagues and customers. "PricewaterhouseCoopers' China business is growing rapidly, and we are also faced with fast evolving customer requirement,” Ken Crombie, IT director for PricewaterhouseCoopers China/Hong Kong, said in a prepared statement. “We hope the new office in Beijing will serve as a highly efficient supporting platform, and the communications system is an integral part of it. Avaya has rich experiences in telephony, and can provide us with leading technologies and vision, as well as applications tuned to our industry. The new communications system will enable us to provide top level services to our clients.” The new multi-media e-mail system turns voice mails into e-mail messages, which can then be downloaded from the e-mail server for processing. The new contract extends PwC’s and Avaya’s relationship, which began when the professional services giant deployed an Avaya IVR system. "We are excited to partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, a renowned professional services organization both in the world and China, on this project,” Liu Junling, Avaya China’s general manager. “This is another proof of our leadership in the enterprise communications field. Avaya helps enterprises to gain efficiency and competing edge from their communications systems. We believe IP Telephony technologies will continue to drive the convergence of communications applications with business applications, and create big values for enterprises and their customers as well." The Avaya system is comprised of S8700 media server which runs: Avaya Communications Manager, G650 media gateway; more than 1000 IP-based phones; and IP softphones. The press release states that PwC will also deploy converged communications systems in its Hong Kong and Shanghai offices, “with around 3000 and 1200 users respectively.” This is a big day for Avaya, which also announced that it deployed its IP Office at the St. Lucie County Schools system in Florida. The school organization decided to tap Avaya for the district’s new telecom reorganization project. The task won’t only provide the institution with lower-cost phone services, but it will also make room for network growth as the school delivers new services to parents, students, teachers and administrators. Today’s announcements follow Avaya’s recent release of its IP-based speech self customer service system earlier this month. The new Avaya Voice Portal software platform integrates within a service-oriented architecture (SOA) providing speech-enabled Web services. The Avaya Dialog Designer, the company’s new speech application development tool, enables designers to develop speech self-service applications. Integrated with Web services or in traditional environments, the Avaya Dialog Designer supports both Avaya Voice Portal and Avaya Interactive Response. Avaya Inc. http://www.avaya.com ----- Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit: http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100006&nm=Johanne% 20Torres |