Avaya launches new products and partnerships for retailers 29 January, 2007 By Chris Talbot

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According to John Vincent, director of retail industry marketing at Avaya, as retailers have been becoming bigger organizations with more stores they have to manage, telephone systems aimed at the retail market have not been keeping pace. Retailers are still managing lower-end systems on an individual basis. What management methods do exist for the market are cumbersome, often requiring a high degree of specialized knowledge -- something retailers typically get from outsourcers at a high cost, he said.

"Point-of-sale systems, data networks, any type of database residing on a server -- these have all evolved into very easily centrally-managed systems, and that's enabled retailers to break out of having 200 stores regionally and turn into these large conglomerates," Vincent said.

As retailers have become larger chains, managing their telephone systems has become more difficult. Avaya's solution is something the company is calling a first for the retail industry. Avaya Integrated Management for IP Office is a management tool that makes it easier and more economical for large retailers to deliver intelligent communications at individual store locations. The software streamlines and simplifies the way retailers' headquarters can configure and manage Avaya IP Office communication solutions across distributed networks.

While there have been other centrally-managed products, they have been difficult to use and often require long deployment times. For instance, a large retailer with several thousand stores may want to change the holiday greetings on the phones in the stores, but with key systems, it could take several nights to roll it out across the entire chain. Avaya Integrated Management makes it easy to roll it out quickly from a central management console, Vincent said.

Additionally, firmware updates can be deployed across the data network, thereby upgrading every phone on the system without having to do it on an individual phone or location basis.

"Unlike a command line interface, it is very simple, very intuitive to use," Vincent said.

Learning to use Avaya Integrated Management requires very little training, and just about anyone can learn to use it, he said. It means retailers don't need to have a high-paid network engineer on staff to do something like managing the phone systems, he added.

Avaya will be selling the product through its direct and indirect sales channels.

"In our indirect channel, we know who is selling IP Office and we know who is selling to retailers. We will educate those individuals on it and incent them to go out and sell it," Vincent said.

Avaya will also be offering third-party applications from four other vendors. Vincent said the applications will complement Avaya's hardware and software IP telephony offerings.

For instance, LiteScape produces applications that allow businesses to get more value out of their IP phones. Using the limited, built-in intelligence of IP phones, the company has developed add-on applications that do barcode scanning and time clock functions.

"If I have an IP telephone, I now have an intelligent device that's already there. I can actually send a time clock application to the telephone," Vincent said. With the IP phone already there, why should a retailer spend more money on a time clock if the phone can run time clock software? he asked.

For customer service applications, Avaya turned to Indyme, which builds products that are meant to produce better customer experiences in the store. One of its products is a piece of hardware that has a "help me" button that customers can push to summon customer service representatives. However, with Avaya, Indyme can tie the product into the IP phone system, which can then intelligently find someone who can help.

Additionally, the solution could be tied into a call centre with representatives knowledgeable in products the store carries or even to the manufacturers' call centre, he said.

Aruba Networks is another company Avaya has tapped to provide retailing applications. Aruba is a specialist in wireless networks for the retail industry. One key feature of its products is that legacy scanning devices can be integrated into the networks, which Vincent said is a problem that most other wireless networking companies are unable to solve.

"Aruba brings a modern wireless network with modern security to the table but allows the retailer to use all the old scanning devices they already have," he said.

Last but not least is Secure Logix, which provides secure monitoring products. The products can monitor calls, record calls, monitor the voice network itself and even make sure that those who are trying to access devices and systems have the proper authorization to do so, Vincent said.

"They've been extremely successful in retail," he said.