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BASKING RIDGE, NJ -- (Marketwire) -- 01/09/13 --


•Avaya data infrastructure reduces information technology maintenance costs and helps the City of Taylor meet its budget objectives during a tight economy. •New collaborative communications capabilities make city staffers more accessible and improve service to citizens.

Avaya today announced that the City of Taylor, Michigan, has adopted an Avaya data network and collaborative communication solution to reduce annual information technology costs and improve the service it delivers to local residents.

The investment was prompted by an aging network infrastructure that had become expensive to maintain and required outside support for moves and other changes. It also was oversized for a city staff that had shrunk by a third in recent years. Officials began to look for effective ways to reduce ongoing information technology costs and help current staff members work more effectively.

Fourteen city buildings are now linked in a highly secure, highly reliable campus data network enabled by Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 5000 Series, 4000 Series and 3000 Series and Avaya Wireless LAN 8100 Series. The network supports four Avaya IP Office systems that are linked to form a seamless, collaborative communications infrastructure for city government.

The city has significantly reduced its information technology maintenance costs with the new network and now can easily manage moves, adds and changes on its own. In addition, new advanced communication capabilities are improving the accessibility of city staffers.

An Avaya IP Office Contact Center application, for example, has allowed the city to establish a single, central phone number for all city services. Rather than having to dial multiple numbers to find the right personnel on their own, callers are now routed directly to the appropriate department by experienced agents. Reporting and analytics capabilities allow administrators to track the number and length of calls and to make better-informed decisions about staffing levels. The city also can automatically record all nonemergency calls routed to its public safety team.

Avaya mobility features are improving the accessibility of city staffers, who now can link a smart phone or other mobile device to the city's new communication network and work more productively outside the office. Building inspectors in the field, for example, can answer calls routed to their office line by the city contact center. They also can establish a conference call, use visual voicemail and access city directories, just as if they were in the office.

A "fax over IP" application from MultiTech, an Avaya DevConnect Technology Partner, has allowed the city to eliminate a mountain of fax machines, as well as the phone lines that previously supported them.