San Francisco Aquarium of the Bay Lands a Catch with Avaya IP Office!

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 30, 2004--Unified TelData is pleased to announce that one of the most visited tourist destinations in San Francisco, Aquarium of the Bay, located at Pier 39, has chosen an Avaya IP Office to dramatically reduce telephony costs and improve the effectiveness of its visitors to reserve tickets to visit the aquarium.

The focus around this decision was the outsourced call attendant that gave customers options when looking for information about the Aquarium, including directions and ticket prices. Additionally, all of the previous phone extensions had a dedicated outside line going to it, unnecessarily driving up monthly reoccurring costs. With the call handling capacity of the IP Office Voice Mail Pro, and flexible set types for various extensions, the Aquarium is able to lower their monthly phone bills, and deploy only full featured sets where necessary.

"We analyzed the current costs of the telecommunications infrastructure and found that an investment in the IP Office would pay for itself in one year, and every day after that, we'd start saving money," said Dean Daniels, Director of Operations for the Aquarium.

"Unified TelData and Aquarium of the Bay worked closely together to ensure that the solution that was developed met all of the needs of both Aquarium of the Bay and its customers," said Bryan Gilbert, Vice President, Sales for Unified TelData. "Best of breed products delivered with service excellence was the goal, and Unified TelData provided the right tools, with the right team, right around the corner."

Avaya IP Office, an all-in-one voice and data solution specifically designed to meet the communication needs of small to mid-sized organizations, offered a cost-effective alternative to Aquarium of the Bay's ineffective infrastructure.

With the new system in place, Aquarium employees no longer use outside lines for internal dialing, allowing for a true return on investment story in the number of phone lines serving its building. Similarly, the ability to reach each other internally over a built in paging system enhances their efficiency when locating specific individuals.

The Aquarium also benefits by gaining control over their automated options that their callers hear. No longer is the Aquarium forced to outsource the recordings to a service provider and wait long periods of time to implement a change. With IP Office, the Aquarium can make changes on the fly enabling them to keep up with changes in their business. The tools that IP Office provides make this easy and an efficient way for Aquarium of the Bay to keep the information that its callers are seeking current.

"Being able to make changes anytime without relying on someone else, means that we can react instantly to changes in our business and always keep our clients satisfied," said Mr. Daniels.

About the Companies:

Unified TelData, Inc. named by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the 25 largest Telecommunications Firms Serving the Bay Area for 2001, 2002 and 2003 -- sells and installs telephone and voice processing systems to a broad range of customers including Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates LTD, Jackson Hardware, American Express, France Telecom; The Good Guys, PC Tel; Respond.com; Days Inn; and Any Mountain Stores. A B2B full-service provider, UTDI provides consultation, quality installations, on-site training, technical support, financing options, and maintenance programs. UTDI is an authorized Avaya Diamond Dealer (one of the top 25 ranking dealers in the United States), a Sprint partner, and a Pacific Bell Agent.

Avaya Inc., headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., is a leading global provider of voice and data networks as well as communications solutions and services that help businesses, government agencies and other institutions including more than 90 percent of FORTUNE 500(R) companies excel in the customer economy. Avaya offers Customer Relationship Management Solutions, Unified Communication Solutions, Service Provider Solutions, MultiService Networking Infrastructure, and Converged Voice and Data Networks including the company's no-compromise Avaya Enterprise-Class IP Solutions (ECLIPS) all supported by Avaya Services and Avaya Labs. Avaya is the worldwide leader in unified messaging, messaging systems, calls centers and structured cabling systems. It is the U.S. leader in voice communications systems and services. Avaya is an official sponsor for the 2002 FIFA World Cup(TM) games, the FIFA Women's World Cup 2003 and the 2006 FIFA World Cup(TM) tournament. For more information about Avaya, visit its Web site at http://www.avaya.com.