Avaya's Aura - Good or Bad
June 16, 2014
Avaya's Aura - Good or Bad
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Aura 6.X
Modules Used
- Communication Manager, EAS, CMS, System Manager, Session Manager
Overall Satisfaction with Avaya IX Contact Center (formerly Intelligent Xperiences Contact Center)
Although I work for Atos, I support the Avaya infrastructure in place at McGraw-Hill Financial and McGraw-Hll Education. Both companies use Avaya products to support customer call centers and everyday telecommunications needs. Some uses are very simple like providing dial tone at the desktop while other uses are much more complex like providing Best Service Routing for call center support to make sure the calls are answered as quickly as possible. The Avaya solution is being used across all departments at the locations where Avaya phone systems are deployed.
As Avaya adds more features to the phone systems, the problems it is able to address grow. One of the main issues we faced was the ability to allow users to remotely call-forward phones. This feature is now deployed at all locations and the end-users have instructions for using the remote call-forward feature. This has reduced the number of user requests to have the telecom group do the forwarding.
As Avaya adds more features to the phone systems, the problems it is able to address grow. One of the main issues we faced was the ability to allow users to remotely call-forward phones. This feature is now deployed at all locations and the end-users have instructions for using the remote call-forward feature. This has reduced the number of user requests to have the telecom group do the forwarding.
- It has very good call center software and allows advanced programming for routing calls.
- Avaya has included many features in the Aura 6.x versions that used to be an addtional cost. This makes it much easier to provide advanced call programming at smaller offices that don't have a need to use all of the call center features.
- Avaya is very good at staying current with industry trends like supporting IP H.323 and SIP. This helps when a business wants to move to these models and away from the traditional TDM infrastructure. Avaya's IP phones are very easy to register and move and do not require the MAC address for programming changes.
- Maintenance is my biggest hassle. Now that Avaya has moved to a partner network for installations, it is very difficult to make sure the maintenance records are accurate and up to date. This process can be improved.
- Avaya has great tools for customer administration but it would be nice if more of the options in phone system were available for exporting using filtered lists. I would love to be able to export a list of all administered extensions versus the stations using the ASA export command.
- It seems whenever a new voicemail platfrom is introduced, some features are lost. When Avaya went from Intuity Audix to Modular Messaging, users originally lost the ability to have 9 personal greetings. This was added back in an upgrade release. Now Avaya has moved from Modular Messaging to Aura Messaging and they removed the ability to have the timezone as part of the class of service assigned to mailboxes. This means that companies using one Aura Messaging platform to support users in multiple timezones will need to make sure the timezone is correct when adding the mailbox instead of just choosing the class of service with the correct timezone.
- We were able to reduce customer hold time by 50% after implementing Avaya's Best Service Routing and Business Advocate. This has helped with call center performance and customer satisfaction.
- Avaya's OneX products allow employees to work from remote locations and still have the ability to answer business calls without call forwarding. This helps with employee efficiency and disaster recovery.
- By implementing an Avaya IR solution to handle requests for order status and price and availability checks, the number of calls routed to customer service agents decreased by 30%.
I have not supported other phone system products or reviewed any others in over 10 years. I have worked with small Nortel systems and Meridian systems in the past and I felt that Nortel did a much better job on systems for very small offices with 10 or fewer phones. I am just now starting to support Cisco systems and the most annoying thing I find is the need for the MAC address of the IP phone in order to add it to the system. This much more cumbersome that installing an Avaya IP phone and requires more onsite support.
Using Avaya IX Contact Center (formerly Intelligent Xperiences Contact Center)
Using Avaya IX Contact Center (formerly Intelligent Xperiences Contact Center)
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- The duplicate function is great. The 6.X systems allow users to duplicate stations, agent login IDs, hunt groups, VDNs and vectors. This makes programming much easier if all you need to change is the name or if you have a template in place to use when doing the initial programming.
- The list usage command is a wonderful command. It can be used for trouble shooting purposes or used to find all of the places where a particular extension is in use in the phone system.
- Vector Variables - these are awesome. Programming and using them is not for beginners but they make it so much easier to program call flows and make it easier to use the same programming for multiple inbound numbers but allow them to be treated differently.
- Trunk group measurements - If the system is not connected to an external call detail recording device or call management system, the trunk group measurement reports are not very useful. You can only get the current day or previous day peak hour information or the hourly information for the last 24 horus. It makes traffic studies really difficult.
- The inability to create loops when writing vectors. I am guessing this was done to prevent infinite loops but it is cumbersome programming when the call center wants to play a specific message after the call has been in queue for 5 minutes. Do While or For options would be nice.
- Finding some information can be difficult - it is not always located on the screens that you think it should be.
Yes, but I don't use it