Avaya Invests $165M, Receives $5M Grant from Government of Ontario for Canadian Research and Development

Avaya Invests $165M, Receives $5M Grant from Government of Ontario for Canadian Research and Development
Ottawa, Belleville 'Centres of Excellence' Focused on Delivering New Business Collaboration and Communications Technologies

For Immediate Release: 13-Dec-2010

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Avaya, a global leader in enterprise communications systems, software and services, today announced significant investments for research and development (R&D) activities at locations in Ontario, Canada.

Over the next three years, Avaya will invest $165 million in its global R&D facilities in Ottawa and Belleville, Ontario to develop key components of Avaya's solutions for the enterprise and small to medium business markets. The Ontario government will contribute $5 million towards the initiative, which supports 350 skilled R&D positions working on next generation Unified Communications (UC) and collaboration technologies.

"Innovation is key to Avaya's business and growth strategy, and Ontario is home to some of the company's most critical R&D activities, facilities and personnel," said Kevin Kennedy, CEO of Avaya. "This investment from the Government of Ontario reinforces our commitment to innovation in Canada and builds on the expertise of our Ottawa and Belleville R&D teams. Together, we are adding capabilities to deliver new technologies that are not only changing the way enterprises and people communicate, but are uniquely positioning Avaya as a leader in business collaboration."

"The great minds and innovative companies in Ontario's technology sector are essential to the province staying competitive on the world stage," said Sandra Pupatello, Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade. "Through a combination of our skilled workforce, cost-effective business environment and proactive partnerships with industry, we can help companies like Avaya flourish in Ontario."

Since acquiring Nortel Enterprise Solutions in December 2009, Avaya has increased R&D spending in Canada by 25 percent. Technologies developed in Ontario include Avaya IP Telephony and Unified Communications solutions, which the Ottawa and Belleville R&D teams have been instrumental in delivering. More specifically, Ontario R&D has delivered new marquee solutions and capabilities for Avaya including:

• Avaya Agile Communication Environment™ (ACE), Avaya's software solution for embedding real-time communications into business applications.
• Avaya web.alive™ an online, 3D immersive virtual conferencing and collaboration environment that enables people to communicate like they are face-to-face.
• Avaya Aura® enhancements, including collaboration, messaging, and advanced business user capabilities for the recently announced Avaya Flare™ Experience line of communication devices.
• Avaya Communication Server 1000evolution and migration capabilities that further evolve to the Avaya Aura® unified communications solution for medium and large enterprises.
• Avaya IP Office, Avaya's flagship product in small and medium enterprises, is now capable of supporting new families of digital and IP sets.
• Avaya Software Communication System (SCS), a total unified communication solution for small businesses, was delivered to key international markets.

About Avaya

Avaya is a global leader in enterprise communications systems. The company provides unified communications, contact centers, data solutions, and related services directly and through its channel partners to leading businesses and organizations around the world. Enterprises of all sizes depend on Avaya for state-of-the-art communications that improve efficiency, collaboration, customer service and competitiveness. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some of the key factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations include: our ability to develop and sell advanced communications products and services, including unified communications, contact center and data solutions; our ability to develop our indirect sales channel; economic conditions and the willingness of enterprises to make capital investments; the market for advanced communications products and services, including unified communications solutions; our ability to remain competitive in the markets we serve; our ability to manage our supply chain and logistics functions; the ability to protect our intellectual property and avoid claims of infringement; our ability to effectively integrate acquired businesses into ours; our ability to maintain adequate security over our information systems; environmental, health and safety laws, regulations, costs and other liabilities; the ability to retain and attract key employees; risks relating to the transaction of business internationally; pension and post-retirement healthcare and life insurance liabilities; and liquidity and our access to capital markets. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors may not contain all of the material factors that are important to you. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

via avaya.com