The typical enterprise communications infrastructure is made up of a collection of technologies from multiple vendors, acquired over time and never intended to work together. To maximize user and business productivity, while leveraging existing IT investments, interoperability is a must.
AVST delivers the industry's most interoperable Unified Communications (UC) platform that brings best-of-breed voice, mobility and business process solutions to the enterprise. Unlike virtually every other UC vendor, AVST does not constrain customers with a single vendor lock-in approach. In fact, it's the very opposite. By connecting new and existing technologies, AVST frees organizations from the constraints of a closed, single-source UC solution, unlocking the full potential of their communications infrastructure.
With over 15 million users worldwide and three decades of innovation excellence, AVST is unifying communications®.
Headquartered in Orange County, California, AVST maintains facilities in Seattle, Washington, Victoria B.C., Canada and the United Kingdom and has remote sales offices throughout the United States. AVST's UC solutions are sold and supported worldwide by an extensive network of resellers and OEM partners. To learn more about AVST, our products and partners, please visit www.avst.com or you can follow us at Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
AVST was established in September 2003 from the combined businesses of Sound Advantage (established in 1997) and the AVT division (established in 1982) of Captaris, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAPA). A privately-owned company, AVST's two major institutional investors are Ignition Partners, Bellevue, WA (www.ignitionpartners.com) and Dolphin Equity Partners, New York, NY (www.dolphinequity.com). Open Text Corporation, Bellevue, WA (NASDAQ: OTEX) (www.opentext.com) is also a shareholder in AVST.
Contact information
Address
AVST
One Heddon Street
London, W1B 4BD
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0) 1527 831000
Email: pcheslaw@avst.com
Website: www.avst.com
Case Studies
Waveney District Council
The Challenge
Local councils are now placing communication at the centre of their IT strategies. Waveney District Council needed to source a replacement for its ageing voicemail platform. It was important to find a flexible solution that would both integrate with Novell GroupWise and meet the full requirements of the council, in terms of budget, flexibility and service. It was also imperative to choose a switch independent solution, as the council had plans to replace the existing switch from a Siemens TDM platform to an IP switch.
The Solution
ProcessFlows recommended the AVST CallXpress unified messaging solution as it delivers call processing, voice mail, unified messaging, fax, speech and notification, and was therefore capable of meeting all of the council’s criteria. The solution also integrates with more traditional and IP switches than any other unified messaging product on the market, as well as Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise. This flexibility was important to the council.
Waveney District Council has implemented an 8 port CallXpress platform initially for 200 unified messaging users. This was connected by DPNSS to a Siemens Realitis switch and integrated into the GroupWise email/groupware environment.
The council wanted to optimise the functionality of the auto attendant and the ESP (Extension Specific Processing) feature in the solution, which allows each subscriber to have a personal menu that callers are routed to when they are forwarded to voice mail. Consequently, they also implemented ScheduleXpress, which is a tool for simplifying the ESP/auto attendant process. This personal menu has access to all of the features available in a call processor mailbox and also allows each user to have dedicated announcements and messages, which can provide more targeted information and increase the speed and level of service provided to the public.
Following the initial installation of CallXpress, the council began its migration to VoIP utilising a Mitel platform. ProcessFlows have continued to work with Waveney to ensure the solution grows with its needs and moves seamlessly to the new IP environment.
To assist with the changes, ProcessFlows have integrated CallXpress to both switches and have added an additional 4 ports, taking it to 12 ports, as well as increasing the numbers connected to the IP platform on the Mitel 3300. Another 50 unified messaging users have been added and the council has upgraded to CallXpress 7.9 to take advantage of the web phone manager addition, which allows users to simply change their CallXpress settings by using a Web browser.
The Benefits
The Revenues and Benefits teams use the unified messaging capabilities of CallXpress extensively, as they experience heavy communication traffic from the public. The council is very pleased with the improvements in voice mail processing and therefore service levels in these sections.
It has also found CallXpress invaluable in the hot-desking pilot, which will be rolled out to more council staff. Full unified messaging facilities are currently available to 250 users and this will undoubtedly grow as, like most local authorities, Waveney begins its rollout of home and remote working.
Waveney District Council employees rely on good communication to complete their daily tasks and meet the council’s service strategy. With more and more mobile workers the council also wanted to improve its employees’ mobile access to e-mail, to encourage personnel to work in the community. CallXpress is helping in both these areas.
The Royal Academy of Arts
The Customer:
The Royal Academy of Arts on London’s Piccadilly has recently updated its communications systems, with a business solution package supplied by ProcessFlows. The new package has enabled the historic organisation modernise its business processes and cater for its growing audience.
The Solution:
ProcessFlows integrated a 16 Channel CallXpress Advanced Messaging solution with IP Integration with the Royal Academy’s Cisco Switch, along with a 4 Channel OpenText RightFax solution with Integration to Exchange 2003.
Both solutions were originally running alongside a Mitel 3300 PBX, before transition to the Cisco IP solution. The transition for CallXpress and RightFax to the Cisco system was seamless, with the added benefit that the Academy’s initial investment was protected as there was no need to purchase a new voice mail solution because the switch had been changed.
The Benefits:
“The scalability and ease of use of the products made the choice less difficult. Their technical ability and flexibility, along with the obvious cost saving, made ProcessFlows the preferred solution provider. We gave the users hands-on training for the new phone system and voice mail, and we organised classroom training for RightFax as it was different to anything the staff had previously used. In this way we saved time and prevented the inevitable back step as people got used to the new methods.”
Matthew Conway, IT Manager at the Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts has a long history as a centre of artistic excellence, being the oldest fine arts institution in Britain. It was founded in 1768 by a group of leading artists under the patronage of George lll.
Products
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