BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - March 16, 2010) - Avaya today announced that Ritchie Bros.
Auctioneers -- the world's largest industrial auctioneer (
NYSE:
RBA) (
TSX:
RBA) -- has created a global, centralized
Avaya Aura™ unified communications
environment that serves both permanent and temporary locations in North
America, Europe and Asia. The new system -- which supports more than 1,100
employees worldwide -- speeds critical transactions, increases network
reliability and will save the company more than $225,000 annually.
As an industrial auctioneer, Ritchie Bros. sells used and unused heavy
equipment and other assets for the construction, transportation,
agricultural, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum and marine
industries at several hundred auctions around the world every year.
Auctions can take place at any of its 40 auction locations worldwide as
well as occasionally remote, temporary locations. Each unreserved public
auction triggers high volumes of communications activity before, during and
after the event, with hundreds of people connecting to a central contact
point and millions of dollars changing hands.
The Avaya Aura solution allowed Ritchie Bros. to move from a model of
independent, multi-vendor systems with multiple, regional support teams to
a single unified approach that covers all its locations, central call
center and mobile workforce. The change provides higher reliability during
auctions where long distance lines can remain open for more than eight
hours at a time to support the company's online bidding service, and lowers
communications costs for long distance, trunk lines and mobile phone usage.
Avaya Aura, which has been integrated with Microsoft Active Directory,
enables all Ritchie Bros. employees to access a common directory from any
location using their Avaya one-X® Communicator client interface. As part
of future plans, Ritchie Bros. is looking at integrating Avaya one-X
Communicator with IBM Lotus Notes Sametime. This would enable employees to
see whether colleagues are available for a live interactive session and
simply click on their name to launch it, as well as play voicemails and
manage their communications preferences from a single interface.
Ritchie Bros. selected
Unity
Telecom, a Platinum-certified Avaya channel partner, for the sale,
implementation and ongoing support of the new system.
"The centralized directory, the mobility options, and the advanced features
supplied by Avaya one-X Communicator make it possible to reach people
quickly, to collaborate effectively, and to successfully interact with
customers and business partners," said Chris Farrer, telecommunications
manager, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. "We're very pleased with the Avaya
technology and the superior service delivered by Unity Telecom. We look
forward to further performance enhancements and new capabilities as we roll
out additional network components over the coming months."
Other benefits that Ritchie Bros. has gained from its Avaya Aura
implementation:
-- Increased communication speed and efficiency: Avaya's uniform dial plan
allows mobile employees to be reached through a single office extension
number regardless of where they are located in the world.
-- Cost savings: Ritchie Bros. will achieve several levels of savings. The
initial $225,000 annual savings the company will gain from eliminating
half of its trunk lines and reducing long distance utilization will be
increased when voice networks are further streamlined and least-cost
routing kicks in. Calls to and from mobile devices will also move to
the network or least-cost routing to reduce international cellular
costs.
-- Powerful mobility tools: The Avaya Aura solution enables mobile
workers to turn almost any location into an efficient office
environment. While traveling, users can connect with the office
network, check Lotus Notes, manage e-mail, access voicemail and
faxes, and play back voice messages. For any of these formats, the
user can then add comments, forward to another user, e-mail to
someone not in the network, and print. A pending installation of
Avaya one-X Mobile will further enhance this experience and use of
the corporate directory.
"Our Avaya Aura solution, along with the 24/7 support we receive from Unity
Telecom, enables us to offer our customers a high level of service, and to
provide our employees with the tools they need to do business, regardless
of location," said Farrer.
The Avaya applications, systems and services implemented by Ritchie Bros.
include: Avaya Aura Communication Manager, Avaya one-X Communicator, Avaya
S8730 Servers, Avaya S8500 ESS with disaster recovery, Avaya G450 Media
Gateways, Modular Messaging R5 with MSS and MAS servers, Avaya AES server,
Avaya 9640 IP phones, and Avaya 2410/2420 digital phones.
About Avaya
Avaya is a global leader in enterprise
communications systems. The company
provides unified communications, contact centers, and related
services directly and through its channel
partners to leading businesses and organizations around the
world. Enterprises of all sizes depend on Avaya for state-of-the-art
communications that improve efficiency, collaboration, customer service and
competitiveness. For more information please visit
www.avaya.com.
About Ritchie Bros.
Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (
NYSE:
RBA) (
TSX:
RBA) is
the world's largest industrial auctioneer, selling more equipment to
on-site and online bidders than any other company in the world. The Company
has over 110 locations in more than 25 countries, including 40 auction
sites worldwide. Ritchie Bros. sells, through unreserved public auctions, a
broad range of used and unused industrial assets, including equipment,
trucks and other assets utilized in the construction, transportation,
agricultural, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum and marine
industries. The Company maintains a web site at
www.rbauction.com and
sponsors an equipment wiki at
www.RitchieWiki.com.
About Unity Telecom
Unity Telecom is a full-service Communications Company, providing
consulting, design,
implementation and support for best-of-breed IP-based business
communication solutions. Unity representatives have sales and technical
certifications on all the products the organization sells and supports,
including Avaya, Motorola, Open Text RightFax, Panasonic, and Polycom. With
offices across North America and strong alliance partnerships with
certified resellers, Unity Telecom is aptly able to serve businesses of all
sizes. For more information visit the Unity Telecom site:
http://www.unitytelecom.net.
Contact Information: Media Inquiries:
Deb Kline
Avaya
908 953 6179
klined@avaya.com