Avaya incorporates iPhone into enterprise telephony

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 01 October 2008 09:30

Business IT - Technology

Avaya Australia has added support for the iPhone to Avaya one-X Mobile, its software application for mobile phones that enables them to function as a cordless extension off the Avaya business IP PBX.

According to Avaya, one-X Mobile enables a mobile phone to have access to enterprise telephony features like multiparty conferencing, multilevel transfer, extension dialing, mute, hold and many others when using a telephony integration deployment.

When international calls are dialled from the mobile they will automatically be routed, via WiFi, through the Avaya PBX, at lower rates. And users have the option that all calls made from the mobile device using Avaya one-X Mobile appear to the called party with their business number, not their mobile number.

All unanswered calls to the employee's business number go to their business voicemail system; even those received on the mobile phone. When used in a unified communications deployment, Avaya one-X Mobile provides visual access to the business voicemail.

All calls made via, or received via, Avaya one-X Mobile can be seamlessly transferred between the desk phone and mobile device. An employee arriving at his or her desk while on a mobile call can pick up their desk phone to continue the conversation. While on a desk phone call, the user can become mobile by extending the call to their mobile device. In both cases, the handoff is, according to Avaya, seamless and i completely transparent to the other party.

One-X Mobile also gives the user access to the corporate telephone directory from their mobile.

Avaya one-X Mobile is available for for BlackBerry, Palm OS, Java, WAP, Symbian and Windows Mobiles. According to Shalini Verma, research manager - communications research, IDC Asia Pacific, there is considerable demand for products like on-X Mobile to support a wide range of devices. "While organisations are keen to reign in the numbers and types of enterprise ready devices, mobile workers and business decision makers are moving in the opposite direction."