Avaya expands mobile, social media support for call center software

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Avaya today introduced new mobile device and social media features aimed at improving customer call centers.

The new mobile capabilities allow enhanced smartphone capabilities for contact center operations, including additional automation and self service functions for customers, with the ability to connect directly to a person. Avaya also introduced support for additional social media platforms, including Google Alerts, RSS feeds and YouTube to accompany existing support for Facebook and Twitter. One-touch video collaboration with customers or within the enterprise is also now available.

In addition to those features, Avaya also announced an update of its Aura Call Center Elite offering, which allows for twice as many calls to be handled on the existing infrastructure with the new software. Avaya also introduced new phone hardware, which is available at SIP endpoints.

The features are all available today and are powered by the Avaya Aura platform, which is required to use the new features. Pricing for the social and mobile capabilities begins at $30,000 plus per session, while the Call Center Elite begins at $350 to $750 per license. Avaya says that it has about 37% market share both in terms of revenues and shipments in the call center market.

In the wake of Cisco announcing it would drop support for its Cius tablet, Avaya responded by proclaiming it would continue to support its Avaya Desktop Video Device (ADVD) tablet, and extend support for its Flare communications application to iPad, Windows PCs and Android in the next year. Analysts say the move is more about Avaya beefing up its Aura platform than selling tablet devices, though.

Network World staff writer Brandon Butler covers cloud computing and social collaboration. He can be reached at BButler@nww.com and found on Twitter at @BButlerNWW.

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