Avaya eases migration from legacy phone systems with IP Office 7.0

Avaya has announced the next version of its IP Office system designed to help SMEs using its own legacy systems and those from Nortel, which it acquired in 2009, to upgrade seamlessly.

Key to the IP Office 7.0 release is the ability for firms to continue using existing handsets by simply plugging them into the new platform, allowing all data and settings to be transferred in an effort to reduce the cost and time needed to migrate.

Lee Shorten, Avaya's UK managing director, told V3.co.uk that this would make it far easier for companies to route calls to employees' various devices, such as mobile and desktop phones, and reduces the cost and hassle of doing so.

"A lot of SMEs in the UK have separate systems for office use, home use and mobile use, which means employees can be billing them for the cost of separate phone lines. But with this offering you can simply have one system that routes calls to any location," he said.

"This offers a very quick return on investment and, as a lot of customers have told us they want to upgrade their systems but don't want the cost that comes with replacing handsets, the IP Office system enables them to keep their phones while upgrading."

Speaking via web cast from an event in New York, Alan Baratz, president of Avaya Global Communications Solutions, explained that a simple upgrade process is crucial as the firm has so many customers on legacy equipment from Nortel.

"We have some 30 million customers, of which half are on legacy Business Communications Manager tools from Nortel, so we knew that if we wanted these customers to upgrade to IP Office we had to make the transition simple," he said.

"With IP Office 7.0, firms ranging in size from five employees to 300 can more easily configure and manage their phone systems to take advantage of the unified communications capabilities on offer."

Baratz added that the move underlines Avaya's commitment to the SME market, which he said is seeing renewed spending and more optimism about the state of the economy.

The system is available now through Avaya's reseller community. There is no set price for the system as it will be up to resellers to set their own prices and packages.