Message Networking is designed to provide networking capabilities for Avaya Messaging products, such as the Avaya Modular Messaging system, the embedded base of Avaya Octel® and INTUITY® AUDIX® messaging products, as well as non-Avaya messaging systems.

This turnkey server-based solution that connects individual voice or multimedia messaging systems. As with the Avaya Interchange (which the Message Networking solution replaces as the Avaya networking solution going forward) using a "store-and-forward" or "hub" approach to networking, the Message Networking solution receives messages, performs the necessary protocol conversions, and delivers the message to one or multiple recipients on one or multiple messaging systems. The hub-and-spoke network topology, in which each messaging system is directly linked through the Message Networking solution to every other messaging system, is simpler to manage and easier to expand than a conventional point-to-point topology.

Now, each messaging system requires only a single connection to the Message Networking solution, and new systems can be added easily without affecting existing servers. All message routing, protocol conversions, administrative functions, and management capabilities reside on the Message Networking solution, so network connections are less costly and easier to manage.

Benefits

• Protects investments in existing Messaging systems.
• Simplifies network administration, management and expansion.
• Can reduce long-distance costs.
• Can reduce management/administration costs.

Features

Seamless Networked Messaging
The Message Networking solution enables enterprise-wide messaging that helps streamline costs and makes employees more productive.

Sending voice mail messages can replace many costly and time-consuming long-distance calls between locations as employees can easily communicate with others regardless of location or time zone. With a single command, users can also inexpensively send voice, fax, text, and attachments to multiple offices or individuals worldwide by allowing messages to be sent over existing corporate-wide TCP/IP Wide Area Network (WAN) facilities.

Centralized Network Management
Enterprises can perform most administrative, networking, and reporting tasks through an easy-to-use PC-based system that provides access to their entire messaging network.

Centrally managing and administering the entire Messaging system network can reduce costs and allow for faster updates to the network. Improves communications across the entire enterprise, regardless of location or messaging system type.

Enterprise Lists
Enables users to create lists to all subscribers within the network through a variety of methods (including dynamic creation of lists such as location, organization, etc.) to broadcast messages enterprise-wide.

Enhances communications across the enterprise, improving information sharing, including timely dissemination of information. The use of Enterprise Lists can also provide significant costs savings when sending messages over the corporate wide area network, as opposed to using the PSTN.

Web Browser-Based Administration
Supports web browser-based administration similar to that of Avaya INTUITY™ AUDIX® LX and supports access to equivalent Avaya Interchange Release 5.4 menus, screens, and reports, including: Networking Administration,System Administration,Customer Services/Administration.

Simplifies the Messaging system network administration, reducing the time it takes to make adds, moves, changes to the end-point messaging systems.

Enterprise Directory Management
The directory-view types include the entire directory, only those subscribers that have messaged to each other, portions of the directory (i.e. communities of interest), or none. This still allows messaging, but does not support any ASCII name addressing or voice name confirmation.

Can reduce the amount of administration time required to maintain and manage enterprise directories, ensuring that messages can be quickly addressed and sent.

Dial Plan Mapping
Supports message delivery between locations with different addressing schemes, simplifying how users send messages to each other.

Users dial a previously-defined, fixed number of digits to address their message, regardless of the destination server, and Message Networking automatically converts the address to the proper number of digits for the destination server and delivers the message. This feature helps make it easier for enterprise associates to use message networking, improving communications and businesses processes.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Interface
Release 2.0 supports an LDAP interface (secured by password) that will allow external, third-party vendors to add, change, delete, and query Enterprise Lists and the entries in those lists. It will also allow the query of Enterprise List System Parameters (including system-wide subscriber permissions).

Allows customers or third-party vendors to write applications to streamline administration, which might include subscriber administration of lists, synchronization between an enterprise's personnel direction and the E-List application.

Enterprise Addressing
Employees can address messages to anyone else in the enterprise simply by using the subscriber's voice message network address, even if the subscriber name is not downloaded in the remote end-point server's Directory View. The numbering scheme (or dial plan) should be uniform throughout the company, of a fixed length, and can be between 3 and 10 digits in length. Ten digits are recommended to allow for future growth and eliminate overlapping address ranges.

Allows associates to easily address messages to key colleagues, helping to ensure better communication throughout the enterprise.

Multiple Speech Compression Technique Support
Translates different message transmission protocols and transcodes the various speech compression techniques, so businesses can network almost any messaging system they have in their enterprises. Because all transmission protocol translations are performed within the Message Networking solution, there's no need to reconfigure each individual end-point server or equip them with translation software.

Helps to improve communications across the entire enterprise, as well as any of the millions of email users reachable via the Internet.

Multiple Protocol Support
Supports: TCP/IP digital protocols (for INTUITY™ AUDIX® server, Octel® 200SX/200/300 messaging servers, Octel 250SX/250/350 message servers, and non-Avaya messaging servers that are VPIM compatible), Octel® analog networking, AMIS-analog networking and SMTP/MIME (for Modular Messaging, Unified Messenger and non-Avaya Messaging Systems).

Provides investment protection benefits by allowing existing Avaya and multi-vendor messaging systems to be networked together. That means virtually any voice or multimedia messaging systems can be easily networked via the Message Networking solution. There is no need to remove or replace existing systems that are compatible with the Avaya proprietary protocols or industry-standard protocols (including SMTP-MIME or VPIM).