Avaya Unified Communications help businesses across the region improve business while reducing environmental impact

Around the world, businesses and organizations are reducing carbon emissions and improving customer service, productivity and flexibility using communications technologies from Avaya, which also announced today that it's Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions have been "Certified Green" by Miercom, an independent testing organization. The designation verifies that Avaya Communication Manager-based networks are environmentally-friendly designs that can save companies money and boost efficiency.

Among the ways Avaya helps companies and organizations reduce carbon emissions is by decreasing the amount of hardware needed for communications. Avaya Communication Manager telephony software makes it possible to build an efficient communications foundation that supports up to 36,000 endpoints across hundreds of locations with a single pair of centralized servers. The software builds in a number of capabilities - features, functions, safety and security - that other vendors can only provide by adding more servers. Less hardware translates to reduced power consumption for both the hardware and cooling requirements.

To help businesses and organizations determine how much energy they can save with Avaya technologies, the company recently launched a new Green website and an energy savings calculator.

The tool calculates savings in kilowatt energy consumption, carbon emissions and gasoline consumption in both English and metric units.

"Growing demand for Avaya Unified Communications Solutions for Remote Workers reflects how the solutions fulfill multiple objectives for a broad range of businesses and public sector organizations,"

says Roger El-Tawil, channel and marketing director for Avaya Mena and Turkey.

"Businesses in the region are already adopting greener solutions that are effective in terms of energy savings and results in reduced costs. Avaya is helping them achieve these objectives with solutions that allow employees to work from home or remote locations, reduce their carbon footprint and yet be productive."

More and more companies are equipping employees for telecommuting - a move that can improve productivity and morale and avoid the creation of more than 1,000 lbs. of carbon when just one employee telecommutes one day each week for a year. Carbon savings result from reduction in facility requirements and gas consumption; when it comes to helping the environment, small businesses can have a big impact since they cumulatively account for the 99 percent of the total number of businesses world wide.

The Miercom certifications come following intensive, hands-on testing in a lab environment of three model Avaya Communication Manager 5.1 networks under various loads and conditions, which included mid-sized business networks, campus environments and large distributed offices with contact centers. The reports cover how Avaya products and technologies enable enterprises to reduce power consumption, enable environmentally efficient work models, as well as Avaya's policies and processes for ongoing improvement in product design, manufacturing and business operations.

According to the Miercom Campus (2000 user) report: "Avaya Communication manager 5.1 IP PBX platform, augmented with Avaya Modular Messaging and Avaya Meeting Exchange for conferencing provides feature-rich function for efficient communication while reducing costs. Telecommuting, branch office operation and remote system management are enabled, thereby providing a viable alternative to large office complexes and reducing business travel with effective multi-media services."

Avaya's Green website features podcasts, customer case studies, fast facts about helping the environment and more.