SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - May 13, 2008) - Avaya announced that it is accelerating its innovations in unified communications (UC), with sixty percent of its U.S. patent portfolio now in the unified communications space.

The innovations come from Avaya Labs, Avaya's research and development organization, where experts in forward-looking technology collaborate closely with product and services developers to generate and test ideas for new communications applications. Worldwide, Avaya has almost 4,400 patents issued and pending for business communications that companies use to keep their operations running and their customers satisfied. The company's portfolio of US patents grew 40 percent over the last five years.

"Customers of all sizes are solving their business problems with effective, affordable unified communications technologies from Avaya," said Ravi Sethi, president, Avaya Labs. "Our goal is to enable a limitless number of exciting UC applications, so customers can choose the applications that best fit their individual business needs. To make widespread adoption possible, we support open, interoperable standards for UC. This open model stimulates innovation by allowing thousands of developers around the world open access to the APIs they need to build compelling solutions that best fit customer needs in every corner of the world."

Unified communications allow people to communicate in a variety of ways, using different communications platforms and a myriad of devices, such as telephones, PCs, web interfaces, and mobile devices. Designed to simplify and manage communications and break through the clutter of multiple devices, unified communications combine voice and video telephony and conferencing, voice and video mail, instant messaging, presence, email, calendar and contacts, and collaboration. IDC estimates that the global market for unified communications will grow to US$17.5 billion by 2011.

Avaya has been an early leader in the communications industry for patents to fundamental technologies that make UC possible. These include a patent that attaches voice messages to email so a user can listen to the message in email; software that integrates a person's voice mail greeting with their schedule and automatically updates the greeting, telling callers when the person will return or another way to reach him, such as a cell phone number; and an efficient way to automatically distribute voice, fax and data communications among servers and phones in voice over IP and multi-media wired and wireless networks.

Examples of continued leadership include these recently-issued patents to Avaya for UC innovations:

--  An application that augments your calendar reminder system by
    gathering information to estimate the time you must leave to arrive at a
    meeting promptly, whether it's down the hall or across the country,
    sending calendar alerts and  reminders based on how long it will take you
    to get there.
    
--  Software that creates a distinctive "ring back" -- a brief audio file
    played to the caller -- indicating the location or activity of the person
    being called.
    
--  A way to automatically adjust speech compression levels, which helps
    speech travel  efficiently over voice and data networks, ensuring high
    quality voice communications even when networks are congested.
    

Chemoil uses Avaya innovations for cost savings, mobility and productivity benefits

Avaya innovations are helping companies around the world operate more efficiently and increase productivity. One such company is Chemoil, one of the world's largest suppliers of marine fuel products.

Chemoil's headquarters is in Singapore, and its main administrative office is in San Francisco. It has operations and service centers in many of the busiest ports, including Los Angeles, New York City, Houston, Singapore, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and in Panama and the United Arab Emirates, where it acts as a "gas station" for ships and provides fueling services to international container, tanker, and bulk carriers.

The company has grown steadily since it began in 1981, with new offices that opened recently in Southeast Asia, Europe, and Central America. According to Raffael Alva, telecom manager, Chemoil, Avaya's communications solutions are helping his company control costs and consistently provide excellent service to clients, even when its employees are on the road , working remotely, or working on a project with each other across time zones.

"With our Avaya IP network, our employees are not only more productive and efficient, but we cut our communications costs nearly in half," Alva said. "Our offices around the world are linked with IP and we have four-digit dialing, so it's easier, faster and more economical for our employees to keep in touch with each other. For us, the mobility features that Avaya's technology experts designed into the systems were the biggest selling point. Our 24/7 operations team manages the physical transfer of fuels at our ports, so they need to be able to work from anywhere -- whether they're on site at the port, working from home, or at the office. Now, they can make and send calls over the Internet from their laptops, switch a conversation from their desk phone to their mobile phone in mid-conversation, or pick up their email and or voice messages from their phone or PC. The technology is really amazing."

About Chemoil's unified communications solution

Chemoil's communications solution includes the Avaya Unified Communication Center, which lets mobile, remote and office workers easily access important communications tools and information via any telephone using simple and intuitive speech commands; Avaya Extension to Cellular, which lets calls coming in to a business number ring simultaneously on the office phone and up to four mobile (or wireline) phones; Avaya IP Softphone, which makes it easy to place and receive phone calls from a PC or laptop; and Avaya one-X™ desktop edition, which transforms Windows-based PCs into intelligent SIP-based collaboration endpoints. Users are able to make, receive and handle voice calls, send instant messages to one another and track each others' presence using an intuitive graphical user interface. Chemoil's solution also includes Avaya servers and wireless, IP and digital phones. The solution was configured by Matrix USA, a certified member of Avaya's BusinessPartner program.

About Avaya

Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than 1 million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, use Avaya solutions for IP Telephony, Unified Communications, Contact Centers and Communications-Enabled Business Processes. Avaya Global Services provides comprehensive service and support for companies, small to large. For more information visit the Avaya Web site: http://www.avaya.com.

Contact Information: Media Inquiries: Barbara Burgess (908) 953-3348 barbarab@avaya.com