Avaya releases communications management platform

Avaya is looking to take over the management of an enterprise's entire communications platform with a new offering the company announced today.

By handing over management of an enterprise's unified communications, contact centers, data networking and video communications to Avaya through the Communications Outsourcing Solutions (COS) offering, it allows for reduced total cost of ownership, upgraded communications systems and managed support for communications system upgrades and repairs, Avaya said in a press release.

Read: Mobile World Congress 2012: This year's hottest gadgets 

"With this offering, we are completely monitoring and managing a client's communications environment," says Ed Nalbandian, vice president of Avaya Operations Services. "We proactively monitor so that we can resolve any problems that occur, we provide a full range of change management and we analyze the network to look at capacity, throughput response time and bottlenecks so that those issues can be resolved."

The service is available on a per user, per month price that is customized for individual customers based on services provided, Nalbandian says. It's aimed at large enterprise customers looking to upgrade their communications infrastructure hardware or software, or for enterprises that are looking to maximize the service of their legacy equipment. Avaya provides the service across vendors and platforms, so it does not require new hardware investments, Nalbandian says.

For example, with the offering Avaya would be able to provide complete management of an enterprise's contact center, where customers of a business engage with the company on through voice, Internet and e-mail. Avaya's offering allows enterprises to perform advanced analytics, allowing for a more efficient delivery of services and a better customer experience.

Avaya has been testing the COS offering for about a year with 15 companies, but made the service publicly available today.

Network World staff writer Brandon Butler covers cloud computing and social media. He can be reached at BButler@nww.com and found on Twitter at @BButlerNWW.

Read more about infrastructure management in Network World's Infrastructure Management section.