Avaya Mobility Solutions Keep Marin County Government Connected to Com

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. and MARIN COUNTY, Calif., Feb. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- For the government employees of Marin County, Calif., keeping in close contact with the community is of paramount importance, even when their jobs take them far away from the office. Elected officials, building inspectors and sheriff deputies are just some of the more than 2,500 employees that must remain easily accessible and responsive while traveling and working throughout the county. To accomplish these objectives, Marin County chose enterprise mobility solutions from Avaya Inc. -- a leading global provider of business communications software, systems and services -- which helped enhance workforce productivity and efficiency, and significantly improve service to county residents.

Using Avaya solutions, Marin County's employees and officials can access and manage critical business tools by calling a single number and speaking simple voice commands into the phone. With Avaya speech access, they can now listen to and compose e-mails, check and schedule appointments, create task lists, and access contacts quickly and easily from any phone -- all through speech.

The county's employees also use preference-based capabilities -- such as "Find Me" functionality and instant alerts -- to gain one-number accessibility while maintaining complete control over their communications needs. Residents trying to call a county supervisor can choose to "find" them, and Avaya's advanced mobility solutions will attempt to contact the supervisor at a designated phone number (i.e., home phone, cell phone) based on user-defined rules. Employees can set their preferences so that the application will alert them for urgent voicemail or email messages -- based on the priority level or the sender. For instance, deputies in the Marin County Sheriff's Department who are out investigating a crime could quickly be reached by supervisors who have critical information or evidence to share.

"Mobility is extremely important to local governments like Marin County," said Barbara Layton, telecommunications manager, Marin County government. "Our elected officials spend a significant amount of time traveling around their district for meetings, and our county employees are always on the go, whether they are meeting constituents, inspecting buildings in the community, repairing a traffic light, or staffing a local health clinic.

"We have a responsibility to the taxpayer to use funds in the most efficient way, and Avaya mobility solutions help us achieve this," she added. "Giving our employees the tools they need to work remotely or while traveling -- without the cost and inconvenience of taking along a laptop -- is a real plus."

Avaya mobility solutions also enable Marin County's employees to collaborate more quickly and conveniently. Using speech, they can set up multi-party conferences or call a colleague simply by accessing the government directory and speaking a name.

Marin County government is one of many organizations choosing mobility solutions to overcome the challenges faced in keeping employees accessible and in touch with customers and colleagues. Key mobility trends are the focus of research conducted by Avaya*, which shows that many organizations miss important revenue-generating opportunities because calls do not reach the right people at the right time. For example, sixty-two percent of U.S. respondents said they receive important messages late more than once a week. Additionally, results showed that attitudes toward mobile work scenarios are positive, with seven in ten workers saying their employers trust them to telecommute, and seventy-five percent believing that a flexible working environment improves an employee's sense of work/life balance.

Avaya enterprise mobility solutions help organizations extend Avaya's suite of Internet protocol (IP)-based MultiVantage(TM) Communications Applications over any network to mobile workers in any global location. By empowering mobile users with one-number accessibility and seamless, secure connectivity to business processes, Avaya's mobility solutions put communications at the heart of a business. This drives improved levels of productivity, cost-efficiencies and revenue growth for organizations of any size, in any industry.

Details About Marin County's solution:

The Avaya enterprise mobility solutions described are based on the following applications contained within the Avaya MultiVantage Communications Applications suite:

Avaya Communication Manager: The company's award-winning standards-based IP telephony software helps organizations easily and cost-effectively migrate to IP telephony at a path and pace of the customer's choosing. Marin County's implementation also includes an S8700 Media Server and G650 Media Gateways.

Avaya Unified Communication Center Release 2.0: This application uses intuitive speech commands to access corporate information from any phone. This advanced, speech-based interface lets users easily manage: calling and conferencing capabilities; voice, fax and email messages; enterprise directories and databases for contacts; and productivity tools such as online calendars, and task lists. The solution integrates with Microsoft(R) Exchange(R) and with IBM Lotus Domino(R).

Avaya Modular Messaging 2.0: This IP standards-based application leverages the power of Marin County's IP-based Avaya communications network to support multiple county locations, without requiring a separate server in each office. With Modular Messaging, callers can choose to leave a message or search for an individual via user-designated phone numbers. Using a PC interface, these features can be customized by preferred time, type of caller or other variables.

About Avaya

Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500(R). Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable IP telephony systems and communications software applications and services.

Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications -- and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -- Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya website: http://www.avaya.com/ .

*Notes To Editors

This research has been published in the 2005 Global Research Report 'Working to Communicate Better in Business'. Research company, Vanson Bourne surveyed 600 managerial level business contacts in commercial organizations in each of the target countries: Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia, UK and USA. The commercial organizations had a minimum of 200 employees.