Avaya Announces New Initiatives for Mid-Size Contact Center Market

Company Acquires Agile Software NZ Limited; New Avaya Contact Center Express 4.0 Solution Launches with Greater Functionality and Streamlined Simplicity

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Avaya Inc. today announced new initiatives related to its flagship contact center solution for mid-size businesses – Avaya Contact Center Express – that enable organizations to deploy the sophisticated customer service capabilities of larger businesses in a simplified, fully-integrated and more cost-effective way.

Avaya, a leader in business communications applications, systems and services, acquired Agile Software NZ Limited, the developer of the Avaya Contact Center Express solution.1 With this agreement, Avaya gains full ownership of Avaya Contact Center Express, which will help enable the company and its partners to accelerate their growth in the mid-market space.

Avaya also released Avaya Contact Center Express 4.0, the latest version of its mid-market contact center solution. This new release provides users with a host of advanced multimedia, reporting and self-service capabilities designed to enhance customer service and agent productivity for mid-size companies or divisions of large organizations.

Mid-size companies face a unique set of customer service challenges since they have a fraction of the agents, administrators and budgets of larger businesses – yet may still require a more sophisticated set of features and services. Avaya’s acquisition of Agile Software will help the mid-size customers of Avaya Contact Center Express overcome these challenges and improve contact center operations through a fully-integrated solution delivering more capabilities, easier installation, and a simplified migration path.

“Our acquisition of Agile Software – and the evolution of Avaya Contact Center Express – reinforces our strong commitment to the mid-market contact center space,” said Anthony Bartolo, general manager, Integrated Office and Contact Center Communications. “Combining the expertise of Agile Software and Avaya will enable us to deliver more new and innovative solutions to our mid-market customers.”

New Avaya Contact Center Express 4.0 Capabilities
The “out of the box” Avaya Contact Center Express solution provides mid-size businesses with features such as a unified desktop display, advanced multimedia tools, and integration to leading CRM software including Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM. The solution is powered by Avaya Aura™ Communication Manager, the company’s voice and video telephony software delivering next-generation business communications.

New capabilities of Avaya Contact Center Express 4.0 include:

* Enhanced Reporting: Enhanced multimedia performance reporting on real-time and historical activity in a contact center environment. Voice reporting is also added to existing e-mail and IM reporting, enabling companies to gain the robust reporting required for top-tier customer service. Users can choose from a range of standard reports or use custom reporting tools to create reports tailored to their specific needs.

* Speech Self-Service Improvements: Integration with Avaya Voice Portal – the award-winning platform for automated voice, speech self-service and video customer care – provides seamless self and assisted service offerings.

* More Automated Features: More automated capabilities used by large contact centers are extended to the mid-market space. For example, a “Customer Requested Callback” feature lets customers who cannot hold on the line to request a callback, automatically scheduling a return call from an agent.


Free & Clear Uses Avaya Contact Center Express For Personalized Service
Avaya Contact Center Express has been installed by many companies worldwide, including Seattle, WA-based Free & Clear©, Inc., the healthy behaviors company. Free & Clear had specific needs to address in creating a customer service operation that among other activities, could help patients quit tobacco use by scheduling “quit smoking” dates and providing supportive counseling via the phone. Avaya Contact Center Express provided an integrated platform for inbound and outbound customer service that easily evolves as Free & Clear grows.

“Avaya’s mid-size solution is ideal for our current and future needs,” said Leif Haslund, telecom manager at Free & Clear. “It provides an effective way to deliver personalized, professional treatment to customers across 18 states. We currently have two contact centers with more than 300 agents, and as we expand, we’re confident Avaya Contact Center Express will help us do so with ease and agility.”