Avaya has launched a new version of IP Office, its primary unified communications offerings for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The company claims that the new version IP Office Release 5 is software that simplifies unified communications and customer service for SMEs, while delivering a range of new capabilities improving the scalability, resiliency and productivity of organisations. It is offered in a six role-based solutions-tailored to roles such as tele-worker, mobile worker, and customer service agent, each designed to meet specific worker needs.

Avaya said that it has also streamlined IP Office by consolidating multiple hardware options down to a single, higher-capacity hardware platform. It now supports 384 users per system, up from 272 and the conferencing capacity has also been doubled from one to two 64-party bridges.

Anthony Bartolo, vice president and general manager of small and medium enterprise communications at Avaya, said: By strengthening and expanding the range of communications capabilities available to small businesses today, Avaya is giving these companies the tools necessary to compete in today’s challenging business environment.

According to Avaya, with the new IP Office Release 5, a business site can use servers at alternate sites to keep an IP communications network, including phones and voicemail operating in the event of an outage. It also delivers new productivity-enhancing applications for unified communications and customer service via web browser using a ‘thin-client’ model.

The new web-based applications include one-X Portal for Avaya IP Office, a communications portal designed for PCs providing workers a better way to manage phone communications using real-time call control, presence and call logs, the company said.

In addition, the new release includes a contact center reporting application Customer Call Reporter, which enables supervisors to track customer service progress and agent productivity, while using alarms to help administrators react to issues in real-time. 

With the introduction of Avaya IP Office Release 5 software, the Avaya IP Office 500 server becomes its single server offering for the SME market. The Release 5 software can also be used on existing IP 406v2 and IP412 IP Office servers.