Avaya Aura Communication Manager Review: Support for Stronger UC

An instant overview of Avaya Aura Communication Manager

5
AvayaAuraCommunicationManager
Unified CommunicationsUnified Communications Reviews

Published: September 7, 2018

Rebekah Carter - Writer

Rebekah Carter

Avaya, leaders in the world of communication and digital transformation, offer a range of high-class products for businesses ready to embrace the customer-focused strategies of tomorrow. Built to facilitate better engagement for both customers and employees, Avaya Aura Communication Manager is a software-focused platform for real-time engagement.

In a world where teams from all verticals need help connecting with and delighting customers across multiple channels, Avaya Aura Communication Manager supports over 700 unique services and features for UC and customer experience. Whether you’re looking for something to help with your omnichannel contact centre strategy or a set of advanced messaging solutions, Avaya Aura Communication Manager could be the tool for you.

Let’s get to know this service a little better.

Features & Benefits

Avaya Communication Manager is one of the primary functions of the Avaya Aura Platform. The Aura platform is a selection of communication and collaboration components that users can customise to create the ultimate customer experience strategies for their brands. Avaya Aura helps businesses to be more efficient, and productive through a selection of video, messaging, and mobility services. Features include:

  • Voice and video calling
  • Mobility and workforce productivity features
  • Built-in conferencing and customer experience applications
  • Distributed or centralised messaging
  • Connectivity to SIP, IP, analogue and digital communication services
  • High survivability, availability, and reliability
  • Support for more than 700 UC services and features
  • Simplified Network management through Avaya Aura Systems manager
  • Voice and video features like auto attendant, call forward and call
  • WiFi and dual-mode WiFi, as well as cellular capabilities
  • Collaboration services through “Meet Me” conferences, and Avaya Equinox integrations
  • Integrated messaging
  • Call centre Integration with Avaya Oceana and Avaya Contact Centre Elite

As a Unified Communications service, Avaya Aura Communication Manager helps companies to handle their communication strategies more effectively, with multiple options for queueing, routing, and priority voice and video handling. Aura Communication Manager provides a wide selection of benefits, including:

  • Improved collaboration through conferencing and on-the-go mobility systems
  • Enhanced efficiency and productivity through easy-to-use features for collaboration, communication, and workflow enhancement
  • Reliability through multiple points of redundancy and transparent failover, to keep your business running no matter what
  • Exceptional voice and video quality, with active monitoring and management, to give your customers the highest quality of conversations
  • Enhanced security: Administrators can separate Avaya Communication Manager applications from the rest of the enterprise network to protect themselves against attacks. The system also uses end-to-end encryption for high-level safety
  • Versatility with open standard support for third-party integrations and end-to-end standards-based app integration

Tech Specs

Server Compatibility:

The latest version of Avaya Aura Communication Manager operates on:

  • Avaya Server portfolio
  • S8800 Server in Simplex or Duplex with G650 Media Gateways through a port environment featuring G700, IG550, G450, G350 or G250 media
  • S8510 Server (with a migration kit) on G450, G350, G700, G250 and IG550 Media Gateways. SCC1, CMC1, and MCC1 migration gateways can be supported, but not in IP and direct connection mixed networks
  • S8300D Server configured with G700, IG550, G450, G350, or G250 gateways

Scalability:

Up to 36,000 users on Avaya Common Servers, S5810 and S8800 servers. Up to 2,400 users on Avaya Aura Midsize Enterprise Solutions, and up to 1,000 on the S8300D server

Number of Trunks:

  • ACS – 24,000
  • S8800 Server – 24,000
  • S8510 Server – 24,000
  • S8300D Server – 4,000

Number of Media Gateways Supported:

  • Avaya Common Server – 250
  • S8800 Server – 250
  • S8510 Server – 250
  • S8300D Server – 50

Target Market & Regional Availability

Avaya Aura Communications Manager can be configured to suit any size of business, from smaller SMB companies, to large enterprises with Avaya Common Server. The system, like many of Avaya’s products and services, is available around the world as a cloud solution. It also follows global communications protocols over a variety of networks for easy accessibility.

How to Buy & Pricing

Avaya Aura Communication Manager is available to buy through an Avaya Account Manager or an authorised partner. The service can be configured to suit the unique nuances of your business, which means that there’s no distinct pricing model available. Instead, you just build the strategy that’s right for you and get a quote from Avaya, or the Avaya channel partner you work with.

Avaya’s Aura suite comes with two licensing options to choose from if you’re looking for a more straightforward purchasing strategy, or you don’t want to build a system from scratch. The “Core” Suite includes access to the complete Avaya Aura platform, with support for:

  • Avaya Aura Communication Manager
  • Session Manager
  • SBC (Session Border Controller) for enterprise
  • Presence Services
  • System Manager

The “Power” suite includes all of the features accessible in the Core package, along with Avaya Equinox conferencing.

FAQ & Useful Insights

Avaya Aura Communication Manager is the ultimate way for modern brands to create their own communication and collaboration strategy from scratch. Whether you’re looking for a telecommuting system that allows you to route calls appropriately to a team of dispersed workers or a collaboration solution with inbuilt real-time messaging and voice or video support, Avaya Aura has it all.

Q: How Reliable is Communication Manager?

A: Avaya Aura’s Communication Manager supports a host of gateways, servers, and survivability features to allow for an average availability of 99.999% or better. The Communication Manager can provide alternative gateways in an emergency, mimic processor functions and more to ensure the best possible survivability rate.

Q: How customisable is Avaya Aura Communication Manager?

A: Besides the fact that you have over 700 features and functions to choose from, Avaya Aura is also built on open standards so that developers can integrate their Aura functionality into new or existing business applications. You can also build on top of Communication Manager with new feature sets and solutions.

Q: How is Avaya Aura Deployed?

A: There is a range of options for deploying Avaya Aura, and Communication Manager, including:

  • Avaya Common Servers with AVP (Appliance Virtualisation Platform) support.
  • Avaya Aura virtualised
  • Pod FX: A complete CC or UC solution with gateways, storage, computing solutions, virtualised applications, cabling, power, and network switches.
  • IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) through Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud or Microsoft Azure.

Have you tried Avaya Aura Communication manager yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments below!

 

Buyer's GuideChannelCustomer ExperienceDigital Transformation
Featured

Share This Post