Avaya Expands Next-Generation 9-1-1-Ready Solutions to Help Public Safety Organizations Meet New and Emerging Communications Needs

BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - August 17, 2009) - To help public safety organizations meet the demands of new and emerging communications technologies increasingly used by the public, Avaya today announced it has enhanced its Next-Generation 9-1-1-ready (NG 9-1-1) solutions. The newly expanded solution adds a professional services consulting offer, technical capabilities, and developer partners to help deliver complete, fully-integrated solutions for public safety organizations.

According to a recent report from the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), the nation's 9-1-1 systems are "in need of a significant overhaul." Public safety organizations face multiple, critical challenges due to the highly-limited, legacy communications systems broadly used by more than 6,000 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and 500,000 affiliate organizations such as police, fire, EMS, etc. Among the challenges created by these systems are the inability to incorporate and respond to new forms of media increasingly used by the public, such as video and SMS/text services, the ability to quickly add and redistribute staff to support high call volumes and the lack of interoperability among communications systems.

Based on Avaya Professional Services, Avaya Aura™ unified communications architecture and in conjunction with development partners in the Avaya DevConnect program, Avaya NG 9-1-1-ready solutions enable public safety organizations to take a practical, secure approach to updating technologies to solve many of these issues associated with legacy systems and making it easier to integrate new and emerging technologies going forward.

Avaya Professional Services Next-Generation 9-1-1 Assessment Consulting Offer

The Avaya Professional Services NG 9-1-1 Assessment Consulting offer includes three components to help guide PSAPs as they update critical communications systems. This offer includes:

--  An onsite assessment of the current state of their technology,
    business policies and staffing skills
--  A future state outlook that identifies opportunities for technological
    and operational change ranked by complexity and impact, and includes
    development of a business plan for change
--  A solution design and roadmap that includes third party applications
    and services outside the scope of the Avaya portfolio which are critical to
    the operation of a PSAP, such as intelligent workstation, recording, and
    radio integration technologies. This also includes a detailed
    implementation/migration plan with best practice resource expectations and
    contribution requirements.
    

Avaya NG 9-1-1-Ready Communications Enhanced with Avaya Aura™

Avaya Aura provides PSAPs with an open standards, Session Initiation Protocol-based unified communications architecture that allows the organization to take a significant step towards NG 9-1-1 capabilities. Avaya Aura enables organizations to centralize contact center and unified communications applications and distribute them to multiple PSAPs and other supporting agencies, allowing the connected entities to serve as back-up for one another. Avaya's technical solution improves interoperability and integration among systems and applications from multiple vendors, and enables the use of multi-modal options -- including voice, video and text -- for public safety.

Avaya NG 9-1-1-ready solutions also enable 9-1-1 operators to work from dispersed or remote locations if needed for sudden emergencies or for business continuity purposes. Communications requiring specialized handling by someone with medical skills, foreign language fluency, or other specialized knowledge can be quickly routed to an operator equipped with those skills, regardless of the location of the operator. With the NG 9-1-1-ready solutions, organizations can track all modes of communications linked to a specific event in a consolidated record, simultaneously transfer traditional and multi-media calls and call records, and analyze current and historical data for performance improvements.

Avaya and DevConnect Program Members Collaborate on Next-Gen 9-1-1-Ready Solution

Avaya DevConnect members and channel partners collaborate with Avaya to provide PSAPs and first responders with a complete, fully-integrated NG 9-1-1-ready solution that is based on industry standards and lab-tested for interoperability, including:

    PlantCML - a leader in 9-1-1 Intelligent Workstations
    NICE - secure recording and analytics
    Raytheon JPS - land-based mobile radio interoperability
    911 Incorporated - call-taking software for PSAPs of all sizes
    Amcom Software - improves speed and quality of centralized attendant
    services
    At Hoc - Enterprise-class, network-centric emergency notification
    systems
    Positron Public Safety - applications spanning entire workflow of
    public safety
    ObjectTel - implements customer-driven Converged Communication Systems,
    Contact Centers and Audio & Data Conferencing Solutions
    TwistedPair Solutions - manage connections to a multitude of devices
    such as phones, radios, and computers across the IP network
    

Avaya NG 9-1-1-ready solutions already support a number of major urban areas, such as Washington, D.C., Miami-Dade County, and Galveston County, Texas, as well as large regional and state agencies, universities and small-to-mid size cities and counties across the United States.

Avaya NG 9-1-1-ready solutions are available from Avaya channels including system integrators, service providers, prime contractors and Avaya value-added resellers. For more information on Avaya Public Safety Communications solutions, visit http://www.avaya.com/usa/solution/public-safety

Read Three Digits to Help on the Avaya Insights blog.

Broadcast and online outlets: Downloadable video available at www.thenewsmarket.com/Avaya911

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.

Contact Information: Contact: Deb Kline 908-953-6179 klined@avaya.com