Avaya debuts Aura for next-gen communications

Aura enables all SIP-based applications in the network to interoperate

Enterprise communications provider Avaya today launched a major new SIP-based unified architecture designed to help firms reduce costs, improve the manageability of communications systems, and reach out to customers via consumer communication methods.

Avaya Aura is based on a session manager tool which enables all SIP-based applications in the network to interoperate regardless of location or vendor. It also allows companies to manage the applications from one place, eliminating the complexity traditionally associated with IP networks, Avaya said.

Costs can be reduced by enabling centrally managed dial plans, on-net calling, global least-cost routing, and public switched telephone network access from the most cost-effective location, according to Jirina Yates, European director of solutions marketing at Avaya.

Aura also enables firms to create new applications and extend them anywhere in the enterprise, and can scale to 250,000 business users and 25,000 locations.

"We are not seeing customers not investing because of the recession, they just need to see return on investment inside the budget year. It's about eliminating as much complexity as possible, and emerging stronger and better by the end," said Yates.

"Aura will save on IT resources, and it is almost as if we have enabled the enterprise to become a service provider to its own users."

Aura lets firms reach out to customers more effectively and securely than before, Avaya said. Organisations can incorporate consumer tools such as social media into communications sessions, and will have the facility to place widgets on social network home pages on their sites, according to Yates.

"This means that people who are interested can communicate with that enterprise, extending the brand into that world in a secure way," she said.

The first solution to benefit from the new SIP-based capabilities in Aura is Avaya's Intelligent Customer Routing application, also launched today.

The contact centre solution has been designed to boost efficiency, cut costs and enhance the customer experience by using the quickest and most efficient route possible to find the right contact centre agent, wherever in the world they may be, the firm said.