NEC Launches ML440 Handset For Small To Mid-Sized Businesses

Little Rock florist says NEC solution enhances customer service & responsiveness

NEC Corporation of America (NEC) has announced the availability of the ML440 Multi-line Wireless Handset for the UNIVERGE SV8100 communications server, designed specifically to meet the needs of small to mid-sized businesses. The first ML440 deployment was part of a recent system upgrade that allowed for increased employee productivity and enhanced customer service.

Southern Wholesale Florist, a family-owned small business in Little Rock, Ark., recently completed beta testing of the ML440. NEC and authorized NEC dealer, Heritage Communications Inc., led the implementation which allows sales associates to answer customer calls anywhere in its 17,500 square foot facility, including within the floral coolers.

“We’ve relied on NEC technology since 1998, so when it came time to upgrade our phone system we knew who to turn to for a wireless handset that would allow us to increase efficiency and survive rigorous daily use by our sales reps,” said Misty Gaston, VP and corporate secretary for Southern Wholesale Florist. “Our 400 customers now feel like they are being heard and it allows our sales force to fill more orders in a shorter period of time.”

According to Gaston, the ML440 has helped employees stay in touch with customers and address customer needs on a more personal basis. Missed sales opportunities are a thing of the past, now that the sales force can take calls while filling other orders on the warehouse floor. Also, the new UNIVERGE SV8100 communication system has decreased the number of customer complaint calls, which has boosted return sales and employee morale.

“Southern Wholesale Florist’s ordering system deals in same-day delivery which makes streamlined communications a must. They now have an edge to help them get fresh orders to their customers faster and more accurately,” said Larry Levenberg, Vice President of Channel Sales and Marketing, Communications Technologies, NEC Corporation of America.. “NEC’s ML440 handset provides employees with an innovative way to assist customers, whether at their desk, on another line, or while hunting the show floor for just the right product to fill a customer’s order.”

The ML440, now generally available to NEC customers, operates on the 1.9 GHz band giving superior sound quality compared to products sold on the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands. The handset also includes:

• Illuminated, color LCD display with GUI for poorly lit environments
• Internal loudspeaker provides hands free operation
• Advanced call-logging features simplify call management
• Long-lasting battery includes 20 hours of talk time of and 200 hours of standby
• Compact design allows for easy use in physically active work conditions
• Soft keys for hold, transfer, conference
• Multiple handsets can be programmed to ring at once
• Calls can transfer to the back office after a set amount of time

“In our business if you drop a call or don’t get back to a customer fast enough, they call the next supplier on the list,” said Gaston. “As one of my top salespeople said, he wouldn’t do this job if we went back to the old system.”

More information on NEC can be found here:
www.necam.com/entcomm www.NECToday.com

New Study Finds Nearly Half of All Small and Mid-Sized Businesses Use Cloud Services

Spiceworks Survey of 1,200+ Small and Mid-Sized Businesses Also Reveals Significant Growth in Tablet Usage, Virtualization Adoption and IT Budgets

AUSTIN, TX–(Marketwire – Nov 9, 2011) – A new study issued today by Spiceworks™, Inc. revealed that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) continue to embrace advanced technology — including tablet computers, cloud services and virtualization technology — at a rapid pace. According to the results of the recently released Spiceworks State of SMB IT survey, nearly half of SMBs have adopted tablet computers and cloud services, while IT budgets for the second half of 2011 saw the greatest jump in more than two years.

The Spiceworks State of SMB IT survey is a semi-annual global study that investigates the latest technology purchasing, usage and staffing trends among companies with less than 1,000 employees. The study of 1,200+ IT professionals was conducted during the fall of 2011 via the Spiceworks Voice of IT® Market Research Program.

Survey highlights include:

Tablets are becoming more popular among small and mid-sized businesses.

• Fifty percent of SMBs have deployed or plan to deploy tablet devices, such as iPads, within the next six months.

Adoption of cloud services continues to rise rapidly among SMBs, while virtualization is still their top IT initiative.

• Cloud services are now used by 46 percent of SMBs, a significant rise over the 28 percent that reported using cloud services in the first half of 2011 and the 14 percent that reported doing so mid-year 2010.
• Virtualization continues to dominate the SMB market. Currently, 61 percent of small and mid-sized businesses use virtualization, which is up from the 54 percent that reported using virtualization during the first half of 2011.

IT budgets see the largest increase in two years as SMBs continue to add IT staff.

• Overall IT budgets in the second half of 2011 grew 9 percent when compared with IT budgets for the first half of 2011 — the largest increase in two years. The average annual IT budget for SMBs now stands at $143,000, up from the $132,000 previously reported for the first half of 2011.
• Nearly one in three SMBs, or 31 percent, plan to hire IT staff — which is consistent with data reported for the first half of 2011.

“Despite market fluctuations, 2011 proved to be a great year for disruptive technologies as SMBs increasingly adopted tablet computers, cloud services and virtualization technology,” said Jay Hallberg, co-founder and vice president of Marketing for Spiceworks. “The results of our most recent survey show SMBs making similar strategic technology investments with expanded budgets — pointing to a stronger market for IT products and services among small and mid-sized businesses in 2012.”

Methodology
The State of SMB IT survey included 1,295 respondents from 95 countries around the world. Forty percent of respondents were from North America, 32 percent from EMEA, 25 percent from Asia-Pacific, and 4 percent from Latin America. Those surveyed work in organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees and were among the more than 1.7 million SMB IT professionals who use Spiceworks to manage their computer networks.

More at http://www.spiceworks.com/voice-of-it

US Avaya Partner Conference Hits Vegas Part 1

By Jay Barta | 8 Nov 2011

Earlier today, Kevin Kennedy, Joel Hackney, and a host of executives hit the stage in Vegas at Avaya's US Partner Conference to spread the word on plans to keep momentum going throughout 2012.

Joel Hackney, Avaya's head of Sales, Marketing and Field Ops addressed a packed conference room: "How does it feel to be winning!?"

Joel highlighted Avaya's Power of We, Faster, Smarter, Better campaign - explaining that Avaya offers what every CEO, CIO and business leader wants: technology that gets the right people together with the right information, at the right time - all to help them make faster, smarter and (you guessed it) better decisions.

Brett Shockley, Avaya's SVP of Corporate Development & Strategy talked a bit about innovation as a powerful tool in the selling process:

"It is often the difference as to whether you are perceived as a strategic partner or a commodity supplier of telecommunications gear. I look for an opportunity where Innovation can be that spark that begins to address a business challenge."

I've provided a few pics from this morning below, and check out Avaya Connected tomorrow for more.

Avaya CEO Kevin Kennedy

Joel Hackney

US Sales Lead Steve Fitz

Avaya Conferencing Demo

Posted 8 Nov 2011 at 04:35 PM

US Avaya Partner Conference - Day Two

By Jay Barta | 9 Nov 2011

As promised, here's more from Day Two at Avaya's US Partner Conference today in Vegas:

We issued two press releases this morning - one announcing key initiatives to build and recognize our channel partners' value (see press release here) and another naming our Channel Partners of the year (see press release here). Congratulations to the following:

• Enterprise Partner of the Year: NACR


• Greatest Growth in Acquiring New Enterprise Customers: Imagine


• Highest Overall Revenue from New Enterprise Customers: Integration Partners


• SME Partner of the Year: Synectic


• Data Partner of the Year: Carousel Industries


• Services Partner of the Year: Arrow S3


• Service Provider of the Year: AT&T

And here are some more quotes/thoughts from the conference:

"No one is more bullish then I am right now, Avaya is in the driver's seat." - Tom Mitchell, Senior Vice President and President, Avaya Go to Market

"We are having very different conversations. We are playing offense and putting points on the board every day." - Jeremy Butt, Vice president, Worldwide Channels

"Start with the customer and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try and sell it... It starts with 'What incredible benefits can we give to the customer? Where can we take the customer?'" - Ok, that's Steve Jobs, but Brett Shockley (our SVP of Corporate Development, Strategy and Innovation) used the point to reinforce his focus on innovation as a differentiator for Avaya.

And my favorite of the day... a photo of Alan Baratz demonstrating "weapons" that represent technologies that our competitors are "arming" our customers with that can be leveraged by Avaya:

And, here's a shot from our "Acceleration Lounge" at the event:

And finally, for those of you who'd like to read more, we've seen a ton of news coverage from the event - check out the following:

Avaya Channel Chiefs: New Partner Pricing Model A Year Out (CRN)

Avaya Channel Strategy Tilts Toward Full Portfolio Partners (CRN)

Avaya Mounting Massive Partner Recruitment Effort (CRN)

Avaya's Networking Business on Mission to Re-Energize Channel (Channel Partners)

Avaya Shifts Partners to Selling Solutions in Key Segments (The VAR Guy)

Avaya CEO To Partners: SIP Will Carry Us (CRN)

Avaya Partner Conference: Our SIP Bet is Paying Off (The VAR Guy)

Cisco turnaround plan shows results in fiscal Q1 as revenues rise 4.7% to $11.3B

John Chambers' plan to put Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) back on a path of focused growth appears to be working as the networking vendor reported $11.3 billion in net sales for its fiscal first quarter that ended on Oct. 29, a 4.7 percent increase over the same period in 2010.

Click here for details of Cisco's fiscal Q1 2012 results.

Due to the uneasy global economic state, financial analysts forecast the vendor would report $11.03 billion in sales during the quarter.

Chambers attributed the better results to the fact that its large service provider and government customers did not reduce their spending as much as initially thought.

The vendor said it's largely completed its restructuring and it expects only $0.01-$0.02 per share in additional charges in the current fiscal year.

From a segment perspective, the results were more of a mixed bag.

Cisco's core switching business sales remained flat at $3.6 billion, while IP routers declined 3 percent to $2.1 billion. On a brighter note, collaboration revenues rose 12 percent to $1.1 billion and video systems were up 13 percent to $879 million.

Despite the positive Q1 results, Chambers is remaining cautiously optimistic about how the company will fare in 2012.

"There will always be challenges," he said. "We are watching very closely the developments in Europe and the global economy, public sector spending, India business, and the fallout from the flooding in Thailand."

As it looks to revive growth, Chambers said one of the company's goals is to find ways to more effectively challenge competitors like Huawei, which has been stealing away market share.

"In the past we have been a little too gentle," he said.

For fiscal Q2 Cisco has forecast that sales will rise 7 to 8 percent, which would mean about $11.13 to $11.20 billion in revenue, surpassing analyst revenue forecasts of $11.14 billion.

For more:
- see the earnings release
- FierceEnterpriseCommunications has this coverage
- Reuters has this article

Source: http://www.fiercetelecom.com/

Blue Jeans Network Demonstrates Industry’s First Video Conferencing Interoperability between Skype and Microsoft Lync

Blue Jeans Network brings together the most popular consumer and enterprise desktop video conferencing solutions just one month after Skype acquisition by Microsoft

The addition of Microsoft Lync to the Blue Jeans offering creates, for the first time, the opportunity for interconnected videoconferencing for nearly one billion people worldwide

November 10, 2011— Mountain View, CA – Blue Jeans Network, the leader in interoperable video conferencing services, today announced that at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference, it will demonstrate a single video conference that connects users on Skype and Microsoft Lync to each other and with other video conferencing endpoints (such as Cisco/Tandberg, Polycom, Lifesize, Google, etc.). The Enterprise 2.0 Conference will take place at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California, on November 14-17^th.

Blue Jeans Network’s demonstration at its booth at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference will be the first public display of Microsoft Lync working with Skype in a single video meeting. The demonstration will take place just one month after the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft was completed.

Blue Jeans Network is a cloud-based video conferencing service that makes video meetings as easy, interoperable and affordable as audio. It’s the first video conferencing service to bridge together business solutions from Cisco/Tandberg, Polycom, Lifesize, and now Microsoft, with consumer solutions such as Skype and Google. For the first time anyone with access to Skype and a video-enabled desktop or mobile device can participate in high quality video meetings with those using traditional video conferencing room equipment.

“Not only will we provide increased flexibility for our users with the addition of Microsoft Lync and OCS to the Blue Jeans Network offerings, but for the first time, nearly a billion people worldwide will have the ability to video conference with others thanks to Blue Jeans , ” said Krish Ramakrishnan, CEO of Blue Jeans Network.

By offering interoperability between so many popular business and consumer platforms, Blue Jeans Network is creating a “network effect” for video conferencing. Blue Jeans Network is enabling more people to communicate easily with each other and expanding the reach of video communications beyond corporate boardrooms and across the enterprise to telecommuters, remote workers, travellers, suppliers, partners and customers.

The Blue Jeans Network service launched in June 2011. Since then it has grown rapidly, expanding to over 1,500 cities in 150 countries, providing video collaboration solutions for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Initial rollout of Lync support for Blue Jeans customers is expected next month.

More at http://bluejeans.com

Cisco enhances unified communications systems for midsize businesses

Cisco has announced a refresh of its unified communications systems aimed at the 75-750 seat market, the Cisco Business Edition 3000 and the Cisco Business Edition 6000, which were formerly known as the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 3000 and 6000 respectively.

"We are turning attention strongly to mid-size businesses," said Roberto De La Mora, senior director of worldwide IP communication solutions marketing at Cisco. "We have had offerings there for a long time, but we really want to develop that market. Cisco is committed to mid-size businesses with the same kind of laser focus we have had on the enterprise in the past."

De La Mora said the mid-size market is worth about 7.4 billion, and has been dominated by legacy voice products which are now aging and failing.

"They want new solutions with the right set of features for their market, which are simple to operate, manage and maintain at a price they can afford, and they want a path to protect their investment," he said.

The Cisco Business Edition 3000 is targeted at the 75-200 seat market.

"The Business Edition 3000 has a fabulous value price and enterprise grade features," De La Mora said. "It's priced to cost around $100 per user with everything included, even the phone."

Features on the 3000 include SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunking, through the Cisco Unified Border Element and integration with the Cisco WebEx conferencing solution. Cisco Jabber is also integrated for IM and presence. Video calls can also be made inexpensively through the Cisco Unified IP Phones 8941 and 8945, which allow callers to see each other on their respective devices.

That video phone support is one way the Business Edition 3000 users can compensate for the 3000's lack of built in support for TelePresence, which is supported on the Business Edition 6000.

"We didn't build it in to the 3000 because we felt most customers who would use TelePresence at that size would use our Callway service," De La Mora said. "We didnt add support in the 3000 box because we didn't want to increase the price."

For rapid set-up, country-specific dial plans for the Business Edition 3000 are now available for the US, Canada, China, India, Russia and Australia. Dial plans for the UK, France, Spain and Italy will be available in Q1CY12.

The Cisco Business Edition 6000 is targeted a little more up-market, at companies with 150 to 750 users, at up to 50 locations.

Cisco has integrated Cisco WebEx Meeting Center and Cisco Jabber for IM and presence into the Cisco Business Edition 6000. This eases the provisioning of these applications as web conferencing becomes the default way to connect people in remote offices, and cloud becomes the preferred method of delivery, since it saves money and reduces management complexity.

The Cisco Business Edition 6000 also embeds the virtualization software required to operate virtualized applications.

"Having the virtualization platform on the box reduces cost and complexity," De La Mora said. "This makes it easier to deploy and maintain."

While the Business Edition 6000 is geared towards companies with 150 to 750 users, Cisco acknowledges companies that anticipate growth, or that want them for branch offices, may want it as well. So the lower bundle limit has been reduced from the earlier version

"We have lowered minimum user requirements to 50 user bundles, whereas before it was 100," De La Mora said. "For branch offices, 100 was overkill. This gives a better price point."

"There is a great opportunity here for our Cisco Collaboration partners," said Marc Inderhees, senior sales business development manager at Cisco Worldwide Channels. "First, we really feel that there's an opportunity for partners to be more relevant with their customer base with solutions that are designed, packaged and priced for the market. Many customers have been holding onto old PBX systems because of the cost and challenges of deploying new systems. Partners are in a better position to ease customers off those technologies, and they can expect to see their revenues grow."

Ted Chong, vice-president of collaboration at Cisco Canada, said these enhanced products really target the midmarket much more effectively.

"We thought we had a big gap in the mid-market, and Canada is really a mid-market market," he said. "We are really happy to see that we have been able to incorporate a lot of these new features into the Business Edition 3000 and 6000. We've worked very hard to make it easy for smaller customers, and we think it will fill a great gap for us, and be one of the big growth areas for my team this year.

"People want the Cisco brand but we havent had the right features and price point," Chong said.

Expected customer pricing for the Cisco Business Edition 3000 starts at $USD 100/user for a 100-user system; for the Cisco Business Edition 6000 pricing starts at $158/user for a 225-user system.

"Having the virtualization platform on the box reduces cost and complexity," De La Mora said. "This makes it easier to deploy and maintain."

While the Business Edition 6000 is geared towards companies with 150 to 750 users, Cisco acknowledges companies that anticipate growth, or that want them for branch offices, may want it as well. So the lower bundle limit has been reduced from the earlier version

"We have lowered minimum user requirements to 50 user bundles, whereas before it was 100," De La Mora said. "For branch offices, 100 was overkill. This gives a better price point."

"There is a great opportunity here for our Cisco Collaboration partners," said Marc Inderhees, senior sales business development manager at Cisco Worldwide Channels. "First, we really feel that there's an opportunity for partners to be more relevant with their customer base with solutions that are designed, packaged and priced for the market. Many customers have been holding onto old PBX systems because of the cost and challenges of deploying new systems. Partners are in a better position to ease customers off those technologies, and they can expect to see their revenues grow."

Ted Chong, vice-president of collaboration at Cisco Canada, said these enhanced products really target the midmarket much more effectively.

"We thought we had a big gap in the mid-market, and Canada is really a mid-market market," he said. "We are really happy to see that we have been able to incorporate a lot of these new features into the Business Edition 3000 and 6000. We've worked very hard to make it easy for smaller customers, and we think it will fill a great gap for us, and be one of the big growth areas for my team this year.

"People want the Cisco brand but we haven't had the right features and price point," Chong said.

Expected customer pricing for the Cisco Business Edition 3000 starts at $USD 100/user for a 100-user system; for the Cisco Business Edition 6000 pricing starts at $158/user for a 225-user system.

By Mark Cox echannelline.com

Polycom Adds Whiteboard to Video Collaboration Functions

With its UC Board, Polycom is adding whiteboard capabilities to its room-based video collaboration offerings.

Polycom is adding another capability to its room-based video conferencing solution, enabling participants to better leverage the whiteboards that are common in conference rooms.

Polycom’s UC Board, announced Oct. 27, is integrated with the company’s RealPresence Room HDX offerings, enabling users to write on a whiteboard in one room and have participants in other locations see what is being written.

According to Polycom officials, during meetings, some people will get out of their seats and start writing on a whiteboard. In a video conference scenario, there was no easy way for people in other locations to easily see what was being written, short of moving the camera to more closely see the whiteboard or to take a photo of it and project it to the other participants. Having to do this hampers the collaborative feel of a meeting, they said.

With the UC Board, what’s being written in one room on a whiteboard will appear on the screen of other participants.

"The Polycom UC Board is the first integrated video collaboration solution to make sharing whiteboard content as easy as picking up a pen," Sudhakar Ramakrishna, executive vice president and general manager of UC solutions and chief development officer at Polycom, said in a statement. "That's great news for organizations of all kinds looking to bring remote employees and customers in a sales presentation, brainstorm, planning meeting, or training class with clear access to all the visual content being presented and discussed."

The UC Board is the latest innovation from Polycom in the hotly contested video collaboration space, which includes not only Cisco Systems but also such players as Logitech’s LifeSize Communications business, Radvision and Vidyo. It’s a market that research firm Infonetics Research says will see double-digit growth at least through 2015, and one that Cisco is the leader with 52 percent revenue share, followed by Polycom at 25 percent, according to Wainhouse Research.

Polycom has been aggressive in building out its capabilities, including launching an ambitious software strategy and bringing its video collaboration capabilities to Apple’s iPads and Android-based tablets. In addition, Polycom this month bought video collaboration software maker ViVu.

Its rivals also are extending their portfolios, including expanding their technologies onto mobile devices. Cisco on Oct. 26 rolled out a number of new additions to its TelePresence line to grow the reach of the solutions to SMBs, which in the past have shied away from the vendor’s immersive video collaboration products due to price or the belief that it was a closed environment.

According to Polycom officials, the UC Board leverages a wireless stylus and receiver to enable meeting members to write on a whiteboard in one location that remote participants can view on their screens. A compact infrared sensor is attached to a whiteboard and stylus, and it’s plugged into the Polycom video communications system via a USB connection. As users write on the blackboard, the image is streamed to other participants. It works with any standards-based system, including tablets, according to the company.

Polycom officials said they see multiple applications of the technology, from doctors working with patients who are in another location to remote students doing class work.

The UC Board is available immediately, starting at $1,999.

Source: http://www.eweek.com/

Avaya Refocuses on Collaboration Value

October 31st, 2011 | Author: Larry Walsh

In terms of real news, Avaya had little new to say at its partner conference last week in Mexico. But what it did say about communications and collaboration could have significant impact on the channel and the market.

Avaya is putting much of the past two years in the rearview mirror. It’s fielded a number of new products, mostly around video and unified communications, and it’s placed an emphasis on partner-led sales engagements.

None of those are changing. In fact, Avaya is stepping up efforts to support partners in the delivery and execution of new technologies that enable communication and collaboration. It unveiled a number of new training, marketing and support resources to aid partners in reaching customers and deploying systems.

“Rapidly changing technologies and rising infrastructure costs have made it more important than ever to make smart technology investments. Customers need solutions that increase productivity and simplify complexity — that provide cost savings and maximize return on investment. This is what Avaya and its partners have been delivering and what we are committed to helping our customers realize — faster, smarter, better technologies that enable communication and make collaboration more seamless,” said John DiLullo, president of Avaya Americas International.

The new resources being poured into the channel are a continuation of Avaya’s “The Power of We” program, through which the company is promoting the utility and value of its communications and collaboration tools to business.

The reason no real news is a good thing is that the show of consistency. Solution providers are increasingly worn down by the continuous change caused by technology and the introduction of new channel programs. Avaya choosing to augment rather than change partner initiatives is a solid indication of a strategy that’s working and productive.

The focus on “communications and collaboration” is what deserves the most attention. No more is Avaya content to talk about telephony, PBX switches, routers and other networking gear. It’s not even talking about its software that powers and rides on these devices. The theme is more a recognition that the world is looking for quality of service, not just the service and applications that makes collaboration possible.

Avaya isn’t the only hardware vendors talking about collaboration. Cisco is pushing new, affordable versions of its TelePresence products to the SMB market and working with Citrix to make better quality video conferencing on thin clients. Microsoft is always talking about collaboration and is working with networking vendors, including Avaya, to make integration of its Sync server more seamless.

For years, we’ve heard about the network being the platform and the need for network acceleration. What’s coming to fore with vendors like Avaya is the advent that the user experience isn’t about the underlying technology, but rather the utility and benefit drawn from the actual applications. In this regard, Avaya is conveying an easily understood message of value with its communications and collaboration themes.

* * *

Lawrence M. Walsh is CEO and president of The 2112 Group, a technology business advisory service that specializes in optimizing indirect channels and partner relationships. He’s also the executive director of the Channel Vanguard Council. He is the former publisher of Channel Insider and editor of VARBusiness Magazine. You can reach him at lmwalsh@the2112group.com.

Hurricane Rina washes out Avaya Partner Conference

Avaya Kicks Off New Fiscal Year With Americas International Sales & Partner Conference

CANCUN, MEXICO–(Marketwire – Oct 27, 2011) -

• Avaya re-affirms commitment to a customer-centric, partner-enabled business model across the Americas International region
• Leverages ‘The Power of We™’ as it outlines Americas International business focus for 2012 and recognizes high performing channel partners for FY 2011 success

Avaya, a global provider of business communications and collaboration solutions and services, today announced a continued focus and commitment to its channel partner model and the Americas International region as it welcomed Avaya Connect channel partners from Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America to its Annual Channel Partner Conference in Cancun, Mexico.

Celebrating the company’s regional performance, John DiLullo, President, Avaya Americas International, thanked the company’s channel partners for their continued commitment and support of the company’s innovation and forward-looking strategy.

The communications and networking industry is at a crossroads where the rapid growth in the number of devices and applications are meeting changing user preferences and employee work-styles. The bottleneck for businesses is no longer access to information — it is the ability to connect people together with the right information at the right time to make smarter decisions in real time.

Avaya continues to enhance business collaboration and communication by developing technologies that enable teams to work better together. Over the past year, Avaya focused on driving profitable growth and evolving as a company to deliver solutions, training, tools, programs and resources for its channel partners to exceed customer expectations.

Avaya also recognized and honored 14 channel partners in nine categories for excellence in 2011. Winners of the Avaya Americas International Channel Partner Awards for 2011 are:

Americas International Contact Center Partner of the Year

• Canada – Branttel Networks Inc.
• Latin America and the Caribbean – Trans Industrias Electrónicas, S.A.

Americas International SME Partner of the Year

• Canada – Bell Canada
• Latin America and the Caribbean – Claro Dominican Republic

Americas International Unified Communications Partner of the Year

• Canada – Unity Telecom Corporation
• Latin America and the Caribbean – First Tech Tecnología Ltda.

Americas International Networking Partner of the Year

• Canada – Combat Networks
• Latin America and the Caribbean – IKUSI México S.A. de C.V.

Americas International Services Partner of the Year

• Canada – TELUS Communications Inc.
• Latin America and the Caribbean – Telmart Tecnologías Em Comunicação Convergente Ltda.

Americas International Service Provider Partner of the Year

• Canada – TELUS Communications Inc.
• Latin America and the Caribbean – Consorcio Red Uno S.A. de C.V.

Americas International Partner Challenge Net New Award

• Canada – Branttel Networks Inc.
• Latin America and the Caribbean – Axede S.A.

Americas International Marketing Partner of the Year

• Canada – Unity Telecom Corporation
• Latin America and the Caribbean – Consultores en Teleinformática Empresarial S.A. de C.V.

Americas International Distributor of The Year

• Canada – Westcon Canada Systems Inc.
• Latin America and the Caribbean – Anixter International Inc.