Avaya Updates Dual-Mode Solution and Strategy

| July 16, 2007 | Enterprise Communications | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Brian Riggs

Event Summary

On July 16th Avaya announced a fixed-mobile convergence solution that provides users of Nokia Eseries cell phones with one number access and the ability to place calls over both private WiFi and public cellular networks. one-X Mobile Dual Mode Edition is available now and lists for $160 per user.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on Avaya’s one-X Mobile Dual Mode Edition because the offering provides the company with a shipping FMC solution for dual-mode telephony at a time when similar solutions from competitors remain mostly undelivered.

• Vendor Importance: High to Avaya, because the company needed to revamp its dual-mode telephony product strategy after its inability to make generally available enterprise FMC solutions over the past four years.

• Market Impact: High on the enterprise communications market because general availability of Avaya one-X Mobile Dual Mode Edition marks the emergence of a new class of FMC solutions: premises-based solutions that transfer calls in progress between GSM and WiFi networks without cellular operators necessarily being involved in the process. This will give enterprises and SMBs new options when it comes to adopting FMC technology.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, Nortel and Siemens need to bring to market their own dual-mode GSM-WiFi solutions. Like Avaya, these companies have been developing these solutions for years and should now start shipping product so that Avaya does not steal much more mind share.

• Ericsson should draw attention to the unique least-cost routing features of its Enterprise Mobility Gateway, as well as provide proof points of its effectiveness in the form of real-world customer examples. It’s features like this that promise to differentiate premises-based FMC solutions, but this will not be possible if marketing and advertising resources are not put behind newly developed products.

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Enterprises considering the deployment of a dual-mode telephony solution should identify the groups of end users who will benefit from the various campus-based, single-mode cellular, and dual-mode mobility solutions available from Avaya and other providers of communications systems. It will be a very specific type of end user who will benefit from dual-mode telephony (i.e., those who have corporate-issued cell phones, but spend a substantial portion of their time in corporate offices, not just on the road).

• Enterprises considering the deployment of a dual-mode telephony solution need to perform a detailed analysis of how much it will cost to upgrade the existing wireless LAN infrastructure for the carriage of real-time telephony traffic.

• Enterprises considering the deployment of a dual-mode telephony solution but with heterogeneous PBX environments should ensure that their FMC solution can support voice systems in all offices in which it will be deployed.

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