My headset is used for Zoom, Skype calls, and Avaya app. however only Avaya gives an electrical echo when the volume goes up. However, because I cannot hear clearly the other party, who is also clear when talking via Zoom, that's why I have to raise the volume, which causes too much of pain when talking daily to other staff.
Avaya is a terrible cloud based system. We are so unhappy and are stuck for now. My company has lost money using it. So frustrated with the inconsistency. Each day begins with new problems. Our clients can't reach us and no one in the Avaya company seems to be able to solve our daily problems for good. I would stay away.
Made decision to switch to OOMA. Began in early June 2021 - still in process month later, refusing to port. Customer service has been lacking - on emails - any point you require management escalation contact X. Did that only to have management say "Why me?" Still in process - can't wait to be free.
Terrible experience. Do not get this service. Ive had nothing but problems the past year. I've spent weeks trying to diagnose why our business phones work half the time. Apparently there is nothing they can do. I am so frustrated and I wanted to voice my experience so others won't have the same terrible hassle
DO NOT PURCHASE. I should have paid attention to all the red flags that presented themselves from Day 1. In my life I've never had the type of horrible experience that I'm having with Avaya. Completely disorganized. Zero support. Bogus charges. The phone system is adequate. The sales/support team feel like a band of con-artists. I keep getting charged random fees, but nobody can tell me what they're for. You have to email a specific billing email that takes 15 days to hear back. I still haven't heard back, but they keep charging me in the meantime. It took over a month to get my phones operational, and yet they still charged me. Customer support conveniently called me on the eve of being able to exit my agreement, giving me no time to find an alternative if I cancelled my service. If I didn't spend all the time chasing them that I did, my phones would still not be setup two months later. I'll keep updating on here with my experience, but it currently feels like I'm in some sort of scam. Looking into getting BBB involved, which I can't believe I'm saying. The amount of time/headache spent just trying to get the simple service I'm paying for feels criminal.
Good once you get the thing going, that may be a faster way but it works good and covers a lot of devices for communication
Via Capterra with permission from Avaya
In my company, we used Avaya IP Office. The configuration is simple and quick. It needs no resources, so it works efficiently with the network. You have a softphone to reach you, even if you're not at your office. I use the 1120E IP telephone version
Via G2 with permission from Avaya
The interface is very easy and basic. The help and incoherence can often be irritating.
The Avaya IP Office solves problems related to phone and call volume. It is very difficult to maintain all sites simultaneously when only phones were used for CSRs. Avaya made problems of the device considerably simpler from site to site.
Via G2 with permission from Avaya
I have been using this software for the past 4 years. It does have its cons but it's a great program. Easy to use and navigate. You can have a great And effective conversation with your clients. Very reliable and when the system goes down it's back up in no time.
Via Capterra with permission from Avaya
Overall we are happy with the product and find that it does what we need it to.
Via Capterra with permission from Avaya
- What is Avaya?
- Overview of Avaya Features & Highlights
- Avaya Pricing & Plans
- Editor's Bottom Line on Avaya
What is Avaya?
Avaya is a multinational business communications company that is known for its desktop phones, multimedia devices, conference phones, and wireless headsets. In addition to these products, the company also serves as a provider for communications platform as a service (CPaaS), contact center as a service (CCaaS), and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solutions.
As a result, Avaya is a reliable solution for those that are seeking an all-in-one option – you shouldn’t have any problems getting fully set up with a complete communications package. Their CPaaS APIs allow your team to add code to your applications so that customers reach your brand through multiple channels. These include voice, SMS, MMS, video, and chat. In addition, their other communications solutions for unified communications and contact centers also provide APIs and multichannel functionality so that you reach your customers on their preferred communications touch points.
Overview of Avaya Features & Highlights
Outside of their hardware, Avaya has several options for businesses looking to embrace CPaaS and UCaaS. Here’s a look at some of the services that the company makes available for its customers.
Avaya OneCloud CPaaS
Avaya OneCloud is dedicated communications API software for the incorporation of communications channels into your apps. Avaya says their platform allows users to “create apps without limits,” and this CPaaS solution does support SMS, MMS, voice, and messaging. Unlike other Avaya products, OneCloud has a single plan for all users that grants several functions for your apps. There’s even SIP integration for those customers with existing trunks.
OneCloud is REST API-based, and the software associated with the service allows you to buy numbers on demand. Here’s a look at all of the features and highlights of the service:
- Local and toll-free dialing for inbound and outbound:
- Inbound and outbound local SMS and MMS messaging
- Inbound and outbound toll-free SMS and MMS messaging
- WhatsApp messaging
- Local and toll-free virtual phone number with no provisioning required
- Auto transcription of calls
- One-click Google Contact Center integration
- SIP integration
- Automatic speech recognition as well as text-to-speech
- Call recording and transcription
- Audio conferencing
- Voice changer for audio conferences
- Customization for the background audio during conferences
- Carrier services for those looking for insights on call origin and number segmentation
- Contact tracing, which uses AI for information collection
- Avaya Cloud Virtual Agent, which is a AI-enabled auto attendant system for smart call routing
Avaya Unified Communications
The critical benefit of Avaya Unified Communication is consolidation. This service ties calling, messaging, meetings, and team collaboration into a single application. Like most UC services, this increases productivity and opens up the lines of communication for colleagues and customers. The service also has enterprise-grade security features like transport layer security (TLS) and data encryption, which is essential for mitigating VoIP security risks.
Here’s a look at some of the features that are available through Avaya’s UC service:
Essential | Business | Power |
Cloud-based voice calling | Salesforce, Google, and Skype Business integrations | Advanced analytics |
Virtual meeting spaces | Customizable reporting system | API integrations |
Instant messaging | Cloud storage | Advanced user management |
Single app for communications | Dedicated fax number | |
Mobile application | ||
Web portal | ||
Print-to-fax |
*All plans include the default features from the previous tier
Avaya Spaces
Avaya Spaces is designed for smaller businesses, which is why they have a freemium plan for those that don’t need a wealth of features. For example, at their base tier, they have audio conferences for up to 50 attendees. The Business and Power tiers are very low priced, as you’ll see in the pricing section, but these plans have all of the features of Essential with increased participant counts and no caps on file sharing.
Here’s a look at the key features of each plan:
Essential | Business | Power |
Voice-only conferences for up to 50 participants | Voice-only conferences for up to 200 participants | Voice-only conferences for up to 500 participants |
Application and desktop sharing | Unlimited file sharing | Meeting recording features |
Video calling for two participants | User management by domain | Dial-in meeting access |
Chat and messaging for teams | ||
One gigabyte of file sharing | ||
Slack, Google Calendar, Outlook, Microsoft Teams integrations | ||
Task management |
*All plans include the default features of the previous plans
Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral
Avaya’s partnership with UC provider, RingCentral was announced late last year in October, and since then they’ve fully unveiled their Avaya Cloud Office UC service. Like with RingCentral Pricing, Avaya Cloud Office offers four distinct plans that include Essentials, Standard, Premium, and Ultimate. Each of these charge per user, per month, and are designed with teams in mind.
The four distinct plans present businesses with more tailored options as they scale. For example, each grants access to virtual phone numbers, but starting with the Standard Plan, users gain DID numbers in 100 countries. Video meetings participant counts also increase with the plan type.
The voicemail-to-text feature may be a selling point for this service because these transcribe any received business voicemail to text so that your reps read them rather than having to cycle through recordings. For users of plans at the Premium level and above, hot desking may also be useful. This allows the assignment of a single workstation to users at different times of the day/week.
Here’s a look at each tier so that you understand the features of each (we’ll cover pricing later):
Essentials | Standard | Premium | Ultimate |
Voice calls for up to 20 users | No user limit | Calls recorded automatically | Device status reports |
Unlimited calls in the US and Canada | Virtual phone numbers in 100 countries | Single sign-on | Device status alerts |
Unlimited business SMS texting | Unlimited internet-based fax | Real-time analytics for call performance | Unlimited file storage |
Team messaging | Video meetings designed to accommodate 100 attendees | Video meetings designed to accommodate 200 attendees | Video meetings designed to accommodate 200 attendees |
100 toll-free minutes | 1,000 toll-free minutes | 2,500 toll-free minutes | 10,000 toll-free minutes |
Document sharing | One-day video meeting durations | Contact center features like call whisper and call barge | |
Support teams available 24/7 | Quality of service (QoS) reporting | Developer platform with APIs for adding integrations to existing apps | |
Voicemail to text | Integrations with Office 365, G Suite, Slack | Built-in integrations with Office 365, G Suite, Slack, Zendesk, ServiceNow, and Salesforce | |
Business phone or toll-free numbers | Multi-site admin and management features | ||
Hot desking | |||
Custom extensions with up to eight digits |
*All plans include the default features of the previous plans
Avaya Contact Center
Avaya isn’t limited to UC plans. In fact, for those running a call/contact center, their Avaya Contact Center plan, which was formerly named OneCloud IX, provides several useful features for those looking to set up a cloud contact center. This service only features two plans, but they are very competitive with other cloud-based contact center as a service (CCaaS) providers.
The two plans are Voice and Digital. Voice is for traditional call centers, but Digital adds on channels so that centers reach their customers on their favored touch points. The focuses for this plan includes email, chat, and SMS. As you’ve learned from our State of the Contact Center piece, omnichannel contact center boosts efficiency and decreases the cost per call of contact.
Here’s a look at each plan and what each offers:
Voice | Digital |
Self-service administration | Quality management and coaching software |
Screen capture | Digital channels |
Interactive voice response (IVR) | |
Live monitoring | |
Compliance recording with 90-day storage | |
Integrated softphone (WebRTC-based Webphone) | |
Call center routing | |
Call center reporting |
*The Digital plan includes all of the features of the Voice Plan
Avaya Contact Center also includes a few add-on plan options that you may want to consider. These are for both tiers of their service:
Add-On | |
Toll Minutes as pay-as-you-go per agent | $0.01 per minute |
Unlimited toll minutes per agent | $50 per month |
Toll-free minutes per agent | $0.02 per minute |
Avaya Pricing & Plans
When it comes to pricing structures, Avaya’s various provider plans have a great deal of variation. For example, their UC plans each have multiple tiers for different sizes of business, and each product is also designed specifically for a certain type of business budget. Here’s a look at their tiers:
Avaya OneCloud CPaaS
Messaging | Message Reception | Making a Call | Call Reception | Phone Numbers | Transcriptions | Carrier Services |
SMS Local
$0.005 |
Free | Local
$0.015 |
Local
$0.01 |
Local
$1 |
Auto Transcription $0.05 | Carrier Lookups $0.01 |
SMS Toll-Free
$0.0085 |
SMS Toll-Free
$0.0085 |
Toll-Free
$0.015 |
Toll-Free
$0.03 |
Toll-Free
$2 |
Hybrid Transcription $0.29 | BNA Lookups $0.05 |
MMS Local
$0.015 |
MMS Local
$0.015 |
CNAM Lookups $0.01 | ||||
MMS Toll-Free
$0.02 |
MMS Toll-Free
$0.02 |
Avaya Unified Communications
Essential | Business | Power |
$19.95 per month | $24.95 per month | $34.95 per month |
Avaya Spaces
Essential | Business | Power |
$0.00 per month | $6.00 per user/ per month | $18.00 per user/ per month |
Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral
Essentials | Standard | Premium | Ultimate |
$19.99 per user/ per month | $24.99 per user/ per month | $34.99 per user/ per month | $49.99 per user/ per month |
Avaya Contact Center
Voice | Digital |
$82 per user/ per month | $129 per user/ per month |
Editor’s Bottom Line on Avaya
Avaya’s ecosystem of products is varied enough that most businesses should easily be able to find a plan that fits their needs. For those looking to add features to apps, multiple plans are developer-friendly such as their Cloud Office and OneCloud products.
Avaya is a provider that has plans that work for a variety of different businesses. They have free plans for small businesses like the Essential plan in Avaya Spaces as well as plans that have many more features that you can consider.
The Ultimate plan in Avaya Cloud Office is extensive enough for larger businesses, and it is feature-heavy with integrations that can really help the daily operations of your organization. Avaya Contact Center even has support for multiple digital channels to help decrease contact center costs.
Many associate Avaya with its hardware, but they are fully committed to providing customers with cloud-based business communications options as well. They even have hybrid solutions for those businesses that need a more tailored cloud experience. Overall, this is definitely a all-in-on provider that’s very worthy of consideration.