Avaya Positioned in Leaders Quadrant for Corporate Telephony


BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - August 18, 2008) - Avaya Inc., a leading global provider of business communications software, systems and services, announced its placement by Gartner Inc. in the Leaders quadrant of its new 2008 Magic Quadrant report on the corporate telephony market(1).

Gartner is a leading industry research and analysis firm, and its Magic Quadrant report positions vendors in the Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries or Niche Players Quadrants based on the completeness of their vision and ability to execute. In its new report on corporate telephony, Gartner places Avaya in the Leaders Quadrant for both "Completeness of Vision" and "Ability to Execute." Gartner's report defines corporate telephony as the provision of holistic voice communications for all wired and wireless users in large enterprises.

Avaya's corporate telephony portfolio is powered by Avaya Communication Manager, a software platform that provides business communications solutions using IP telephony, traditional telephony, or a combination of both. Communication Manager gives organizations a foundation to take full advantage of Avaya Unified Communications solutions, which include a broad range of feature-rich applications for unified messaging, unified conferencing, video collaboration and enterprise mobility.

For the first time, Gartner's Magic Quadrant for corporate telephony represents three geographic locations: North America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and the Asia/Pacific region. Gartner combined these regions in part to reflect the growing impact of globalization on the corporate telephony market.

Gartner's research indicates that Unified Communications (UC) now plays an important role in corporate telephony decisions. The report states: "It is increasingly important that companies consider their telephony partners in the broader context of a UC strategy. Companies should take this opportunity to consolidate their investments into a smaller number of vendors, using IP telephony to deliver a consistent platform across the estate of users in preparation for integration with UC and collaboration platforms, especially for branch, small offices and customer service locations."

"We believe our position in Gartner's Leaders Quadrant affirms Avaya's strategy of building products that help organizations gracefully transition their existing infrastructure to IP telephony for real-time, always-on business communications," said Jorge Blanco, vice president, product management, Unified Communications Solutions, Avaya. "Powerful Unified Communications begins with a reliable, scalable and survivable voice and video telephony platform, and Avaya will continue to lead in the evolution of this key area."

For more information on the Gartner Magic Quadrant report, please visit: www.gartner.com.

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.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Note: Avaya Inc. and Gartner, Inc. are both owned in part by Silver Lake, a leading financial investment firm. Gartner research is produced independently by Gartner analysts, without influence, review or approval of its outside investors or shareholders. For further information on the independence and integrity of Gartner research, see Guiding Principles On Independence and Objectivity on Gartner's website, http://www.gartner.com/it/about/omb_guide.jsp.

(1) Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony. Steve Blood, Geoff Johnson, Jay Lassman, Rich Costello, Gartner Inc. 8 August 2008. ID Number: G00159479

Contact Information: Media Relations Jonathan Varman 908 953 6432 jvarman@avaya.com