Avaya Receives Frost & Sullivan's Top Award for Contact Center Excellence

Avaya Receives Frost & Sullivan's Top Award for Contact Center Excellence

* Survey of Contact Center Decision-Makers Shows Avaya Leads in all Categories, Including Best Overall Solution, Best Customer Service, and Easiest Integrated Solution

* Frost & Sullivan Survey says more Contact Centers are Accelerating IP Integration

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Avaya Inc. (NYSE:AV), a leading global provider of business communications software, systems and services, has received the Frost & Sullivan Award for Contact Center End-User Choice in North America based on its survey of senior contact center decision-makers. In this survey, Avaya was voted the overwhelming favorite in every category measured -- including best overall solution, customer service, and training -- and was cited for having the easiest and most open integrated solution.

The survey, conducted by Frost & Sullivan in October and November 2004, was designed to measure end-user perceptions of the leading contact center brands, and to identify key trends within the contact center market. A total of 127 decision-makers participated in the study, which was conducted on the Internet.

"The results of our survey show that customers see Avaya as the leader in delivering advanced IP contact center capabilities that drive the highest levels of satisfaction -- from implementation, to execution and across every customer interaction," said Darren George, research analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "According to these decision-makers, Avaya led every measure in the survey by significant margins."

Avaya provides contact center solutions to organizations of all sizes through the Avaya Customer Interaction Suite, which contains applications for contact management, self-service, proactive contact and operations management. These applications leverage Avaya's global leadership in Internet Protocol telephony(1), a software-based technology that uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to transmit voice as data over a computer network in a manner similar to email. This enables businesses to extend advanced contact center capabilities across IP networks, helping ensure the highest quality of customer service from any global location.

Businesses currently using Avaya's contact center solutions include: APAC Customer Services Inc., a leading provider of customer interaction solutions for market leaders in communications, financial services, insurance, healthcare, logistics and travel and hospitality; UpSource, a provider of high-quality customer service solutions to businesses; and TigerDirect, a firm that direct markets brand name and private label computers and accessories.

TigerDirect uses reporting and management tools from the Avaya Customer Interaction Suite to support its corporate contact center in Miami, Fla., as well as branch-office centers in Raleigh, N.C., and Ontario, Canada. Avaya Communication Manager software and Avaya Media Servers and Gateways are used together to create a seamless IP telephony network linking the three sites-enabling the company to deploy contact center applications quickly and easily to remote agents and to manage the three locations as a single virtual organization.

"IP-enabled Avaya Customer Interaction Suite solutions are helping us deliver seamless and consistent customer service, regardless of where our agents are based," said Henry Rey, telecommunications manager for TigerDirect. "By tracking and managing the response we deliver, we are able to operate more efficiently, serve our customers more promptly and drive greater revenue to our bottom line."

Avaya IP Contact Center Solutions Serving A Large and Growing Market

The Frost & Sullivan study concluded that the market opportunity for IP-based systems is growing, with over 90 percent of contact centers that have installed IP systems indicating they will increase the number of seats that use the technology over the next few years. Half of the current users said they would more than double their usage.

Additionally, 50 percent of those who do not yet currently use IP-based systems said they plan to switch over to an IP call center within the next three years.

"With this award, Avaya has again been recognized as the leader in delivering IP contact center solutions that are easy to implement, simple to use and drive greater profitability," said Jim Smith, vice president, product management, Enterprise Communications Applications Division. "In 2005, we will build upon this reputation with new applications that put communications at the heart of business, and accelerate the integration of advanced communications throughout an organization."

In addition to the 2004 Contact Center End-User Choice honors, Avaya recently received three other excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan:

* 2005 Contact Center Company of the Year Award

* 2005 Enterprise Infrastructure Company of the Year Award

* 2004 Award for Market Leadership

About Avaya Contact Center Solutions


The Avaya Customer Interaction Suite delivers a range of advanced capabilities, including personalized customer service across multiple communication channels, rapid scalability of self-service and speech-enabled applications, and in-depth reporting for effective management of contact center resources and customer experiences. Designed to support a multi-vendor, open standards-based infrastructure, the Customer Interaction Suite is part of Avaya's portfolio of MultiVantage(TM) Communications Applications.

Avaya also offers a complete multimedia contact center solution designed exclusively for medium-size businesses -- Avaya Contact Center Express -- which enables mid-sized companies to tap into the same rich contact center functionality once reserved for FORTUNE 500(R) companies. This includes multimedia interaction, and the ability to route customers and data to appropriately skilled agents. Avaya Contact Center Express was recently named a "2004 Product of the Year" by Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine.

About Avaya

Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than one million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500(R). Focused on businesses large and small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) telephony systems and communications software applications and services.

Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications -- and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -- Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya website: http://www.avaya.com/ .

(1) Synergy Research Group, Third Quarter 2004 Report on Worldwide Enterprise IP Telephony Market.


Source: Avaya Inc.

CONTACT: Media, Jonathan Varman, +1-908-953-6432, jvarman@avaya.com; or
Investors, Matt Booher, +1-908-953-7500, mbooher@avaya.com, both of Avaya

Web site: http://www.avaya.com/


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