3rd Annual TEQConsult Group Consultant Survey: Page 3 of 6

Question 8: Based on your knowledge and perceptions, please rate each vendor's contact center solution(s) taking into account the following: ACD features; agent/supervisor terminals (desktop telephone and PC client workstation); reporting; self service features; workforce management, and administration management on the scale Weak, Fair, Good, Excellent.

Avaya almost lapped most of the field for this question, leaving no doubt who the consultants believe has the best contact center solution. More than three quarters of the responding consultants rated Avaya as Excellent. As the global market leader in high end contact center systems Avaya’s grades were well deserved.

Interactive Intelligence also received very good grades for its contact center solution (the primary product focus of this system supplier). Nortel, Siemens, and Alcatel Lucent received relatively good grades befitting their respective global market share positions in this solution category. (Note: Alcatel's grade takes into account contact center solutions from Genesys Labs, a sister unit of Alcatel’s Enterprise Networks unit). Mitel and NEC grades were mixed, and Cisco’s were definitely a disappointment for the system supplier (though not a surprise based on the server-intensive design of its IPCC Enterprise offering). Cisco received only four grades of Excellent (the same number as ShoreTel).

Question 9: Based on your knowledge and perceptions, please rate each of the following vendor's messaging system (voice-only, unified) portfolio taking into account available models; hardware design; station user and system features; reporting; ease of use; and administration management on the scale Weak, Fair, Good, Excellent.

Another strong win for Avaya: almost 95% of the consultants grading them Good or Excellent. The other top tier suppliers were: Nortel, Cisco, Siemens, NEC, and Mitel (in that order). Interactive Intelligence and ShoreTel had the highest grades of the remaining suppliers.

There were relatively few Weak grades in this category, indicating that almost all voice messaging systems are adequate for customer’s basic needs. As one consultant wrote: "Everyone does a good job with basic voice messaging."

Question 10: Based on your knowledge and perceptions, please rate each vendor's overall Unified Communications offering and solutions taking into account the following: Desktop PC client; presence/ID management; IM; call screening; coverage; mixed media conferencing & collaboration; third party interoperability; ease of use; and administration management on the scale Weak, Fair, Good, Excellent.

The grades for Unified Communications (UC) solutions were generally lower than the other product/application categories. Avaya barely edged out Siemens and Cisco for first place. I am not sure if Avaya’s UC portfolio is better than the Siemens OpenScape solution, but it is certainly improved from last year.

As one consultant commented, "On the surface they're all pretty much alike. I haven't drilled into the details enough to differentiate between them." The survey results are good news for Avaya, because they recently announced that they will bundle station user licenses for many of their UC options into their Communications Manager Enterprise Edition generic software at no cost to the customer (a savings of up to $650 per user).

Nortel's grades were lower than I would have expected, considering that its MCS 5100 is a strong UC solution. Nortel’s decision to market Microsoft OCS 2007 ahead of its own offering may have affected the consultant grading. Then again, one consultant noted that they "never have understood why Gartner ranks Nortel UC so high."

NEC and Mitel grades were mixed, each receiving fewer Excellent grades than the other top tier suppliers. Interactive Intelligence received good grades, but more received far fewer responses than the top tier suppliers. Alcatel Lucent’s poor marketing most likely affected its grades, because Gartner ranks it in the Leader quadrant of its UC Magic Quadrant.