Avaya Positioned in Leaders Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure Worldwide

BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - December 8, 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 recently published Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide.(1)

Gartner positions vendors in the Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries or Niche Players Quadrants of its report based on the completeness of their vision and ability to execute. In its report on contact center infrastructure, Gartner placed Avaya in the Leaders Quadrant. Gartner's report defines contact center infrastructure as "the products (equipment, software and services) needed to operate call and contact centers." According to Gartner, "This type of infrastructure is used by customer and employee service and support centers, inbound and outbound telemarketing services, help-desk services, government-operated support centers, and other types of structured communications operations."

Avaya's contact center 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. The portfolio is comprised of Avaya's Interaction Solutions, Performance Solutions and Mid-Market Solutions, which provide companies with full-featured contact center infrastructure solutions and applications. This includes call and multimedia routing, self-service capabilities, outbound dialing and other customer service capabilities critical to businesses.

Gartner's Magic Quadrant for contact center infrastructure represents three geographic locations: North America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and the Asia/Pacific region.

"We believe our position in Gartner's Leaders Quadrant reinforces Avaya's strategy of producing contact center products and solutions that help organizations deliver the highest levels of customer service, while maintaining an efficient cost-structure," said Bob Lyons, vice president and general manager, Avaya Contact Center Solutions. "High-quality customer service is more important than ever for businesses in these challenging times, and it is an area we intend to continue innovating and leading in as we head into 2009."

Gartner's contact center research also said that "companies fitting the 'early adopter' profile are examining innovations in the areas of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), service-oriented architecture (SOA), mobility, rich presence and collaboration technologies." Gartner further states: "Companies fitting the 'mainstream' and 'late adopter' technology adoption profiles are increasingly considering virtual (distributed) contact centers, centralized infrastructure models (supporting both companywide initiatives and operationally independent, multi-tenant deployments using shared infrastructure resources), Web- and speech-integrated voice portals, and hosted and managed deployment models in order to balance cost-reduction and improved-service initiatives."

For more information on Gartner Magic Quadrant reports, please visit: www.gartner.com. For a copy of the 2008 Magic Quadrant report on Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide, compliments of Avaya, visit: http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/avaya/vol4/article7/article7.html

(1) Gartner, Inc. "Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide" by Drew Kraus et al, November 18, 2008

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.

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.

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