Avaya targets small, midsize businesses

Avaya this week announced the latest customer for its IP Office product, highlighting the company's increased focus on the small and midsize business market. The networking equipment maker and services provider on Tuesday said nonprofit Colorado Springs Credit Union will use its IP Office product to simplify the small cooperative's communications network. The deal comes after Avaya on Nov. 26 closed its acquisition of Expanets from Sioux Falls, S.D.-based NorthWestern. Expanets provides networked communications and data services to small and midsize businesses, which is shaping up as a significant market opportunity for Internet Protocol telephony providers.

Avaya's acquisition of Expanets "will expand our ability to support businesses...so that they may experience the benefits of business transforming technologies, including IP telephony...while minimizing the complexity and disruption that can accompany implementation and management of these solutions," Avaya President Don Petersen wrote in a letter to Expanet customers explaining the deal.