Avaya Expands Mobile Platform Coverage

Client software available for more devices and coming soon for the iPhone.

Robert Poe on November 15, 2007

Whether under the banner of unified communications or FMC (Fixed- Mobile Convergence), the big thing in enterprise telephony these days is making the cell phone an extension of the in-house PBX. Doing so lets users make, receive and transfer calls on their wireless handsets just like they would from their desk phones, as well as access all kinds of wonderful PBX features no matter where they are. The goal is nothing less than to erase the line between office and mobile phones, and vendors are racing to do it first or best.

Avaya Inc. made its latest move on November 12, 2007, becoming the first major manufacturer to extend enterprise telephony to the iPhone. Actually, the company hasn’t done so yet, but it promised it will by early 2008. However, Avaya did extend enterprise telephony functionality to a bunch of other handsets, effective immediately. The requisite client software is now available for Java, Palm OS, RIM and WAP devices. Symbian and Windows Mobile versions of the software had been available for some time.

Avaya calls its enterprise FMC play one-X Mobile. The "one-X" is short for "one experience," and the software aims to provide a consistent user interface for all telephony functions, no matter what device a user is accessing them from. The mobile client software provides a graphical interface to the PBX that resembles the one that users encounter on their desk phones and PCs. It lets them see a list of waiting voice mails and listen to messages without having to dial in and navigate through a touch-tone menu. It also provides access to the corporate phone directory, call logs and other functions.

Unifying fixed and mobile communications in this way has several advantages besides ease of access. It makes it possible to route incoming calls to mobile handsets as if they were desk phones and to handle calls differently based on who is calling and even where the handsets are (based on GPS-derived location). Calls can also be routed according to the time of day and other factors.

A particularly attractive bottom-line benefit is that the converged system lets mobile users make overseas calls through the PBX rather than having to pay hideously expensive cellular international rates. It also makes it unnecessary to have separate office and mobile numbers on one's business card. One-X Mobile even lets users switch calls between their mobile and desk phones with the press of a key.

The extension of one-X Mobile to multiple new devices illustrates that Avaya comprehends one of the fundamental realities of enterprise FMC, according to Yankee Group Research Inc. analyst Joshua Holbrook. "These announcements will be coming out year after year after year," he said. "Devices evolve, and the number and type of devices in use increases, so they need to be constantly expanding the number of devices they support."

Another indicator of that comprehension is that one-X Mobile works with Cisco Systems Inc.phone systems as well as those from Avaya. "Avaya is just one piece of the larger productivity puzzle," said Holbrook. "They have to work with any number of other providers. What's most important is that they realize they swim in a very large ocean, and there are a lot of other fish they need to get along with."

Even if some of those other fish look about as friendly as sharks.