On Tuesday, January 26^th, I completed  a webinar with Avaya on the new IP Office Release 6.  I wanted to take the opportunity to inform consumers that  there are going to be some big changes, both on the software and hardware in this new release.  So what is new in the Avaya IP Office Release 6?  Some of the new features available in the Avaya IP Office Release 6 are an under 20 price point which means it targets companies with under 20 employees, richer features and a new User Solution that was not previously available on the Release 5.

The under 20 price point is geared towards What Avaya Calls the VSB Market (Very Small Business) with a 90% price reduction for the Avaya IP Office Essential Edition. This price reduction will bring the list price down from $795.00 to only $50.00. Other Avaya IP Office Release 6 enhancements include:

• New 1400 Series phones that are less expensive than the higher dollar phones
• New 9600 Series IP Phones to be used on the Avaya IP Office
• Supports Avaya Partner System Euro Series  phones to make migration easy (requires IPO to be fitted with Partner cards).  This enables you  to use your existing Partner phones on a new IP Office reducing the cost to migrate to an IP platform.
• System can be ran in either IP Office or Partner Mode
• Improved capacity and resiliency with the Small Community Network.  Possibilities  from 500 to 1000 users and adds an option for easy backup
• New Office Worker solution to compliment the Mobile Worker, Power User and Teleworker solutions currently available with Release 5
• SIP Trunk enhancements
• VCM channel licensing has been removed -no more fees for IP phone licenses!
• Avaya One-X Portal for Avaya  IP Office with Audio Conferencing Control built in

Avaya IP Office Release 6 also offers new hardware options to help consumers consolidate and save. Combination cards are now available and are configured as follows:

• The Combination Card will offer 6 digital phones, 2 analog phones, 4 analog trunks and 10 VCM channels (maximum of 2 per IP Office 500 V2)
• The Partner ETR card will offer 6 Partner phones and 4 analog trunks

There will also be some changes to the Avaya IP 500 V2 control unit. Most notably will be the absence of a feature key. It will now have a system SD card that will be either an Avaya Partner or Avaya IP Office and will have the system software/firmware, system configuration, license keys and the Essential Edition. There will also be another slot for an additional SD card that can be used for backups, system upgrades and voicemail storage.

The changes in the Avaya IP Office Essential Edition have dramatically reduced the price for smaller businesses. As previously noted,  the price has been reduced from $795.00 to $50.00. The main difference between the old edition and the new one is the change in the number of voicemail ports. The old edition held 4 ports while the new edition holds 2 ports. Additional ports can be purchased at the cost of $400.00 per 2 ports with a maximum possibility of up to 6 ports.

The new user option that has been added is the Office Worker solution. This solution is geared to individuals  who work in an office setting. Some of the solutions features include:

• A visual PC interface for telephony and voicemail call control
• Presence capability to ‘see’ the status of all users
• The use of instant messaging for faster response
• Audio conference control from your desktop
• Voicemail to email capabilities
• Video Chat

By combining all these features, it is a great way of becoming more efficient with call handling and increasing  communication to your customers and suppliers. This option is offered at $99.00 per seat and volume discounts are available.

The enhanced Small Community Networking (SCN) is a great option for multiple locations. When release 5 was offered to the public, Avaya had changed the SCN user capacity to 500. Release 6 doubles that capacity to 1000 users. It also offers:

• Centralized/Primary voice messages and call recording
• Messaging/configuration backup in case of network or hardware failure
• Minimizes WAN (Wide Area Network) traffic
• Utilizes local voice ports

As you can see, there are definitely some big changes happening with Avaya’s IP Office Release 6. If you are interested in finding out more about IP Office systems and  how it can help with your business, please contact Teltek at 410.552.6580 or via the web at  www.myteltek.com.   Teltek is a second generation, family owned company that has been in business since 1997 and is an established authorized Avaya Business Partner.  Serving Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania and other surrounding areas, trust Teltek to coordinate your next system repair, cabling project, system installation and office relocation. George Farmer, Teltek Telecom Engineer.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 9:06 am by George Farmer and is filed under Teltek News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.