The Agency Group Turns Up the Volume on Business Collaboration With Avaya IP Office 7.0

BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - May 17, 2011) - Avaya, a global leader in business collaboration systems, software and services, today announced that The Agency Group, one of the world's leading booking agencies for music artists, has chosen Avaya IP Office 7.0 to help evolve its global communications strategy to the next level. The choice of the new version of Avaya IP Office -- the company's flagship small and medium business communications solution -- complements The Agency Group's goal of ensuring always-on, real-time service to clients, regardless of their location.

The Agency Group implemented Avaya IP Office 7.0 in both its Canada and UK locations with assistance from long-time Avaya partner Telanet Canada, Inc. Having access to advanced collaboration capabilities is essential to The Agency Group, which represents more than 1,500 music artists worldwide. The company has offices throughout North America and Europe and prides itself on staying connected to acts such as Nickelback, Muse, Dolly Parton, Wiz Khalifa and My Chemical Romance, all of which rely on The Agency Group for booking performances.

"We need solutions to keep more than 70 agents in close touch with artists and their managers, but in a way that seems as if they are just down the hall," said Jan Sikorski COO of The Agency Group. "With Avaya IP Office 7.0, we can enhance and extend our communications capabilities for our staff, while enabling our agents to have seamless collaboration with clients."

The Agency Group migrated to Avaya technology by integrating their Nortel Enterprise Solutions phones and systems with the Avaya IP Office 7.0 solution (see separate announcement issued today here.) This integration typically enables companies to gain between 40 to 60 percent savings¹ on a new Avaya IP Office 7.0 installation by leveraging investments they originally made in existing Nortel phones. Telanet's experience with both Nortel and Avaya solutions helped drive The Agency Group's transition to Avaya IP Office with speed, efficiency, and without a steep learning curve.

"Avaya has done a great job of bringing the features of our existing Nortel phones to the Avaya IP Office platform, which made the transition easier," said Howie Gold, director of IT, The Agency Group. "Programming our Nortel phones is very simple, and users can keep using them without any added input from IT. This migration went perfectly."

Staying in Tune with Clients via Avaya IP Office
The Agency Group began using an Avaya IP Office Power User solution, which includes one-X® Portal for Avaya IP Office, an application allowing users to manage calls, send instant messages and see a colleague's presence, among other functions, from a Web-based portal via PC. The solution helps highly mobile agents remain transparently available to clients, regardless of location.

"Our agents travel a lot, and require the most advanced, yet easy-to-use mobility applications available," added Gold, who plans to use one-X Portal to enhance agent experiences through streamlined access to multiple communications, including video. "More employees were asking when we would get video conferencing, which can help our international force put faces to voices. With Avaya IP Office in place, we're ready."

The Agency Group also plans to derive new savings from one-X Portal by providing a more cost-effective way for agents to stay connected while at hotels. The company's president currently uses a softphone to call while travelling, helping avoid the costs of hotel phones or cellular networks (such as when he visited China to support rock band Nickelback). And by using 128-person conferencing with one-X Portal, the president can oversee large quarterly management meetings while on the road, and avoid the costs of using a third-party conference service.

Another Avaya IP Office capability -- four-digit dialing across continents -- makes it easier for agents to collaborate globally. Now, when an agent from Canada calls his UK colleague, he can simply dial a four-digit extension instead of the full international number. This improves productivity in a business where speed is critical.

For more information on Avaya IP Office 7.0, an online media kit is available here.

About The Agency Group
The Agency Group is a worldwide music agency. Their diverse roster includes a wide variety of international talent. The company also has a literary division, a speakers division, and a performing arts division. They offer global representation for their artists, with offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Malmo. For more information visit: www.theagencygroup.com. Follow us on Twitter @theagencygroup

About Telanet
Telanet is a full service solutions integrator providing unified communication solutions from Avaya to clients across North America. With head offices in Toronto and Chicago. Telanet's focus is on superior customer service. For more information please visit: www.telanet.com. Follow us on Twitter @telanet

About Avaya
Avaya is a global leader in business communications and collaboration, providing unified communications, contact centers, data solutions and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Follow Avaya on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, and the Avaya Connected Blog.

(1) Based on Avaya internal calculations.