-- Market seen promising as companies investing more on enhancing self service capabilitys

FOR IMMEDIA RELEASE: Monday, November 3, 2008

BEIJING, CHINA – Avaya Inc., a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, today issued invitations to China’s software developers to join a contest for developing self services applications based on Avaya Voice Portal, an industry leading self service platform.

Participants will be first asked to design basic self services modules for an airline, including information inquiries, ticket purchasing, and notification of flight information.  The winners will then enter the next stage to design more complicated applications for a bank. The contest will last for about 5 months.  

Participants need to have basic knowledge about contact centers and self service applications to qualify. Before they start, the participants will also get training specifically on Avaya Voice Portal, and get access to the development environment.  The applications that they submitted will be tested and then scored by experts from Avaya and the industry. 
Avaya Voice Portal combines the power of open-standards web technology and IP Telephony, and thus enables organizations to deliver efficient and satisfying voice self-service applications.  For example, organizations can provide new voice services utilizing existing web and application investments by integration through open standards such as VoiceXML, eclipse, J2EE, SOA, and MRCP.      
   
Li Nong, Applications Director of Avaya China, said, "Avaya Voice Portal is a very powerful platform, and can enable enterprises to more efficiently develop and deploy self service applications. And they will benefit from applications not generally available with traditional IVR products.  The contest provides the opportunity for the participants to tap the potential of this great platform, and come up with innovative applications."

Examples of possible new applications are: from their computers or even mobile phones, customers can click a button on the web page of an airline, and listen to information such as weather, flights schedule, etc; customers can conveniently set up personalized self service menus that reflect their preferences and transaction needs.

And it will be much more cost effective for organizations to develop and design new services, and they will be able to better leverage their existing investments.

Enterprises in China should pay more attention to enhance their self service ability, according to Qin Kexuan, Marketing Director of CTI forum, one leading research firm of China in the area of enterprise communications

"Enterprises tend to invest in expanding systems and adding new agents in order to meet the growing customer needs.  This usually means big investment. With the rising labor costs, and the huge uncertainty in the economic situation, it is time for enterprises to really enhance their self services capabilities.  We have observed more interest in this area, and the market is expected to grow rapidly in the coming few years. Products such as Avaya Voice Portal can be great tools for enterprises in this initiative," said Qin Kexuan.

Avaya Voice Portal was launched into China market in early 2008, and has been adopted by a number of customers from industries such as banking, insurance, and travel.
For more information about this contest, please visit: http://www.avaya.com.cn/corporate/events/voice_portal/cn/edm_isv.asp.

About Avaya
Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than 1 million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, use Avaya solutions for IP Telephony, Unified Communications, Contact Centers and Communications-Enabled Business Processes. Avaya Global Services provides comprehensive service and support for companies, small to large. For more information visit the Avaya Web site: http://www.avaya.com.