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Avaya Garners Top Scores in Enterprise Connect 2012 Mock UC RFP Competition(Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) BASKING RIDGE, N.J., April 3 -- Avaya issued the following news release: Avaya today announced that the company recently received the top scores in a mock Unified Communications (UC) Request for Proposal (RFP) competition. The evaluation and scores were announced during Enterprise Connect 2012, a leading industry conference and exhibition. The Enterprise Connect UC RFP was based on a hypothetical customer seeking an all new deployment of voice and unified communications software and hardware for 2,000 end users. In the best out of nine vendor responses, Avaya achieved an average score of 91.8 - gaining more than three full points ahead of the second place vendor when averaged over the three different scenarios requested. The three scenarios in the competition included the following: * Scenario #1 was oriented toward voice with 10% of the users being licensed for UC * Scenario #2 had all users licensed for voice and UC * Scenario #3 was similar to Scenario #1 with the exception of using softphones and mobile clients instead of traditional IP phone sets. Vendors were scored on functionality, architecture, pricing and RFP compliance. Categories were weighted according to significance to the customer, with functionality (50%) and pricing (25%) contributing most heavily to the scoring. During the evaluation presentation session at the conference, session host David Stein, Principal of Stein Technology Consulting Group, noted both broad differentiation as well as commonalities across vendor submissions. Most significantly, there is a huge gap in UC and some voice capabilities among the respondents, although most vendors added support for Android to their mobility offers this year. In addition, the pricing spread for comparable solutions has increased dramatically - with some vendors as much as three times higher than others. The Avaya response to the mock UC RFP included a SIP-based, Avaya Aura(R) unified communications architecture and applications in a centralized configuration with redundancy for security and reliability. The overall solution provided end users with integrated telephony, conferencing, messaging and presence as well as Avaya one-X(R) Communicator and one-X Mobile soft clients and/or desktop telephones. In addition, the response supported 70 contact center agents spread over multiple locations. Supporting Quotes: "While we saw good responses from each of the vendors in one or more particular scenarios, Avaya's scores are a result of a strong responses to all three coupled with more aggressive pricing than in previous years." David Stein, principal, Stein Technology Consulting Group "Every day, Avaya and our partners meet the real-life customer represented in the Enterprise Connect Mock UC RFP competition. Our commitment to 'the Power of We' includes listening to customers and building solutions based on their needs for the highest level of flexibility, reliability and security with the broadest range of capabilities and best value for the price. At the end of the day, it's the real-life advantages of faster collaboration, smarter decisions and better business results that Avaya brings to their table." David Chavez, CTO, Worldwide Sales, Avaya Additional Resources: Avaya Unified Communications (http://www.avaya.com/usa/portfolios/unified-communications/) TNSC-PreetiSi 97120404-mv45-3829461 (c) 2012 Targeted News Service |