Avaya & Extreme to simplify VoIP deployment for SMBs

Stuart Corner
Monday, 09 July 2007 06:41

Business IT - Technology

Avaya and Extreme Networks have joined forces locally to deliver a bundled offering to small-medium sized businesses comprising Avaya's small business IP PBX and intelligent network edge switches from Extreme Networks.

The two companies claim that the combined product set will give "even very small businesses an easy, affordable way to take advantage of advanced, secure IP-based communications to improve productivity, customer service and other business processes." The offer will be made exclusively through ChannelWorx, a joint Avaya and Extreme distribution partner. It will combine Avaya IP Office, Avaya's IP telephony system for small to midsize businesses, with Extreme Networks' Summit series of network edge switches.

ChannelWorx' resellers will be offered special pricing on Extreme Networks Summit 200 (24 and 48 ports), 300 (24 ports) X250e (24 and 48 ports) and X450e (24 and 48 ports) series edge switches when purchased with an Avaya IP Office.

The latest Avaya IP Office suite includes remote diagnostics and support for SIP-based services, and offers a scalable IP telephony solution for both single and multi-site deployments. The Extreme Network switches provide bandwidth management "to help ensure clear, consistent IP voice calls, simple management from a central location, and integrated security and service recovery features for business continuity."

According to Alan Chapman, managing director of TLC IT, an Avaya authorised BusinessPartner "SMBs may not have the same budgets as large enterprises but that doesn't mean they are happy to compromise on performance, particularly when it comes to IP telephony where network problems are very obvious to users. With the joint distribution model, pre-integration and testing work completed, together with the strong Extreme and Avaya collaboration, BusinessPartners get the simplicity and cost benefits of dealing with a single vendor while our customers get the performance benefits of a best-of-breed solution."