Avaya Receives Highest Rating in Report on IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals by Top Analyst Firm

BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - June 25, 2009) - Avaya Inc. today announced the company has received the highest rating -- a "Strong Positive" -- in Gartner's recent "MarketScope for Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, 2009"(1). The report evaluated leading vendors' voice response systems and applications, and rated vendors according to a number of criteria.

In the report, Gartner classified systems into two distinct platforms -- Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Voice Portal -- and rated vendors based on evaluation criteria such as Market Understanding, Marketing Strategy, Sales Strategy and Overall Visibility. A Gartner MarketScope report provides specific guidance for users who are deploying or have deployed products or services. The report's evaluation is based on a weighted evaluation of a vendor's products in comparison with the evaluation criteria.

According to Gartner's MarketScope for IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, "IVR and Voice Portal solutions enable customers to perform tasks via the telephone that would otherwise require a contact center agent and, as a result, they can deliver a provable and often sizeable return on investment." The report also stated that "the primary driver for enterprise investment in voice response platforms is the strong business case for contact center self-service applications."

The rating applied to Avaya -- "Strong Positive" -- is applied to a vendor that is "viewed as a provider of strategic products, services or solutions." If using or considering a "Strong Positive" vendor, Gartner recommends customers "continue with planned investments," while potential customers should "consider this vendor a strong choice for strategic investments." Gartner's overall market rating for the IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals market was "Positive."

In order to be included in this MarketScope, vendors had to have an "established market presence in terms of market share and mind share for voice response solutions," among other inclusion criteria.

Avaya's flagship speech self-service solution: Avaya Voice Portal

Avaya's offering in this market -- Avaya Voice Portal -- automates phone transactions and offers organizations the ability to evolve their self-service architecture using the latest speech automation and voice technologies. It drives superior customer satisfaction by improving responsiveness in the contact center, and giving organizations an excellent return on investment through automation.

According to the Gartner report, "Speech recognition provides a better user interface that can support a wider range of applications than touch-tone interfaces that restrict input to digits entered on a phone keypad. In particular, the two tasks that speech recognition addresses better than touch tone are complex data entry and complex menus. Successful vendors focus strongly on reducing the complexity of application development, improving the management and reporting functions, improving analytics, and providing better integration between channels and between live-agent and self-service tasks."

"In my opinion, a 'Strong Positive' ranking from Gartner for Avaya demonstrates the company's commitment to offering products that meet the demands of keeping customers happy, while keeping costs down," said Chris McGugan, vice president, Contact Center Product & Solutions Marketing, Avaya. "We see increased consumer demand for speech self-service technologies, and are working to get businesses the best technology available to serve that interest."

The information can found in the report: Gartner, Inc. "MarketScope for IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, 2009" by Jay Lassman and Bernard Elliot, May 28, 2009. For more information about the report, please visit www.gartner.com.

About the Marketscope

The MarketScope is copyrighted May 28, 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The MarketScope is an evaluation 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 MarketScope, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest rating. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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.

(1) Gartner, Inc. "MarketScope for IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, 2009" by Jay Lassman and Bernard Elliot, May 28, 2009.

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