The acquisition of Esna will enable Avaya to integrate
communications tools like voice, video and IM inside cloud-based
business applications.
Avaya is addressing the growing trend in the unified
communications space toward mobile and cloud-based solutions by buying
Esna Technologies, which builds real-time collaboration and
communications software.
The deal will enable Avaya to integrate multivendor communications
capabilities—from voice and video to instant messaging presence and
conferencing—into cloud-based applications. The move will make it easier
for enterprises and midmarket organizations to adopt such
communications-enabled applications and for users to move from one
application to another or change devices without disrupting the work
they're doing.
The deal was announced May 28, though no financial details were released.
"For all the industry's talk about increasing simplicity, gains have
been moderate at best," Gary Barnett, senior vice president and general
manager of Avaya's Engagement Solutions business unit, wrote in a
post on the company blog.
"End users still need to fumble through too many clients and
applications to communicate, often taking them away from the work
they're actually doing and the applications they work in most
frequently. The kinds of applications that people are using continue to
evolve, particularly as companies increasingly move away from desktop
incumbents toward cloud-based services.
"While Avaya and others have done well closing the gap between desktop
and mobile, we still need to bridge the divide between applications—not
only communications applications, but business and communications
applications."
Unified communications (UC) vendors are spending too much time
pushing a vision of a single client that brings together the various
aspects of communications and makes them available on any device, which
can tie end users to a single vendor and still forces them to exit
whatever business applications they're running if they want to
communicate, Barnett wrote.
"It takes roughly seven clicks to move from the business application to
communicate as desired, and there's likely at least one mode that is
mediocre or missing altogether," he wrote. "It's disruptive to
collaboration, stifles engagement and impedes progress."
Esna will enable the integration of communications into business
applications, which will make it easier for users to collaborate from
within the applications they're using and from any device they want,
according to Avaya officials. The end result will be greater employee
productivity, while IT departments will be able to avoid vendor lock-in
through an open approach that will enable them to use their current
multivendor collaboration infrastructure while integrating new offerings
from Avaya and other companies into cloud-based applications, they
said.
Esna, a 26-year-old company based in Ontario, is no stranger to Avaya.
The vendor has been a member of Avaya's DevConnect Select Product
Program for several years, and its iLink technology enables users of
Avaya's Scopia video and voice conferencing platform to embed a link to a
Scopia virtual meeting room in a meeting notice in Outlook, Barnett
wrote.
Mohammad Nezerati, Esna's founder and former CEO and CTO, said in a
post on the Avaya blog
that Esna's technology connects Avaya's voice and mobile networks with
cloud-based business software such as Salesforce.com, Microsoft's Office
365, Google Apps and Jive Software.
"The company embeds these communication tools inside the business
applications people use every day," wrote Nezerati, who now leads
Avaya's UC applications group. "That means busy professionals no longer
need to use multiple applications to communicate and connect with
colleagues, customers and partners."
Avaya in June will offer an Esna-enabled Avaya Communicator Web client
for both its IP Office and Aura platforms, which will enable voice and
video capabilities that can be embedded into public or private
cloud-based business applications. Later this year, Avaya will offer
Esna integration with other products, he wrote.
Source : eweek
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