Basking Ridge, New Jersey - Avaya today announced the new version of its unified communications (UC) solution for small and mid-sized enterprises (SME), Avaya IP Office 8.1, which adds innovative capabilities to tap the full potential of next-generation collaboration. This includes new mobility, management and security features—as well as custom-built services—to help SMEs efficiently and securely take advantage of BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”) environments and advanced mobility.

Additionally, Avaya IP Office 8.1—which can serve SMEs as small as 5 employees—now scales up to 1,000 users in a single location (up from 384). This gives mid-sized companies a more cost-effective, simplified way to manage more people on a network in one or multiple sites. It also provides Avaya business partners with new opportunities to provide mid-market customers with affordable, yet high-capability collaboration solutions.

SME Mobility Made Simple, Secure
An April 2012 Forrester Research study on BYOD trends reported that 56% of SME workers who use a tablet for work say they bring in their own personal tablet, while 66% say the same for their smartphones[1]. To ensure SMEs have the capabilities required for an evolving work environment, Avaya IP Office 8.1 introduces:

Avaya Flare® Communicator, the advanced mobility app previously only available to large enterprises, is now available to Avaya IP Office SME users on Apple iPad tablets or Windows-based laptops. It enables mobile access to collaboration capabilities such as business-class calling, presence, company directory search, and management of two simultaneous calls while mobile. Avaya Flare® Communicator for iPad tablets lets users ‘drag and drop’ available contacts into a spotlight, and launch instant messages, voice calls or emails by simply tapping the screen.  The Avaya Flare® Communicator for Windows brings these capabilities to laptops.

New Centralised Management and licensing capabilities eliminate the complexity of overseeing communications for multi-site environments by enabling effective management of several sites from one location. Adjustments to individual sites can be made using a simple administration tool, saving on costs, labour and time.

Enhanced Security Options for Avaya IP Office adds protection against toll fraud, denial of service attacks, and other threats through use of a new SME version of Avaya Session Border Controller—a solution delivering a protective SIP-based firewall. It makes security easy and affordable for SMEs to implement, with advanced capabilities for mobile workers such as the ability to encrypt media and signalling connections without using a VPN for UC. Availability anticipated later calendar 3Q ’12.

Avaya IP Office Support Service, the first support service from Avaya for SMEs, provides fast resolution, technical support from experts, and secure remote access. New SSL-VPN capabilities embedded in Avaya IP Office 8.1 help ensure secure delivery of upgrades, patches and Web-based services. Customers are entitled to major upgrades, and Avaya partners can offer it via wholesale or co-delivery models.