Avaya Inc. last month announced a new unified messaging server that integrates support for wireless clients and voice recognition into the company’s integrated voice mail/e-mail and conferencing server. The Avaya Unified Communication Center product could help businesses integrate voice mail, e-mail, fax messaging, as well as collaboration tools and personal information management systems into a single interface for end users, while helping IS staff to consolidate the management of different messaging servers on the back end. The Unified Communication Center will compete with large-scale (1,000-seat-plus) unified messaging systems from vendors such as Cisco Systems Inc., Mitel Networks Corp., Nortel Networks Corp., NEC Corp. and Siemens AG. The software is available this month for US$400 to US$600 per end user.
Lucent Technologies Inc., Avaya Inc.’s former parent company, cut the revenue projections for its second quarter ending March 31. In addition, Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent said that ongoing business uncertainties will likely prevent it from meeting a goal of returning to profitability during its current fiscal year. But Lucent added that it has enough cash to fund its operations.
Siebel Systems Inc. last month rolled out Siebel 7 Mobile Solutions, a suite of enhanced mobile applications that extend the company’s CRM functionality to the field. The new suite employs a variety of technologies, including SMS (Short Message Service), wireless browsing and remote data synchronization to support mobile solutions for specific markets and applications. Siebel eCommunications 7 for Mobile Carriers provides features in sales, marketing, service and other customer-facing business processes tailored specifically for the mobile communications industry. It is designed to enable carriers to store and update customer data and profiles, identify high-value customers and customers with high propensity to churn, and segment the customer base to up-sell and cross-sell to high-value customers. More info can be found at www.siebel.com.