Unity Telecom Achieves Platinum Certification with Avaya

Invests in the industry-leading skills needed to help businesses transform their operations with IP telephony Helps Sandvik Inc. use Intelligent Communications applications to save on costs, improve the productivity of their employees, and improve customer service.

Newmarket, Ontario, Canada — Unity Telecom today announced that it has been named a Platinum BusinessPartner by Avaya Inc. (NYSE:AV) a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services. The Platinum certification is the highest Avaya offers. It indicates that the Unity Telecom team has developed the comprehensive skills needed to help today’s businesses transform their operations with Internet protocol (IP) telephony and reap the benefits of new Intelligent Communications applications.

Unity Telecom sells Avaya business communications systems, as well as design and implementation services to businesses across Canada and throughout the U.S. Unity has consistently received an extremely high level of recognition from Avaya, and in fact the company continues to be engaged by Avaya Global Services to assist with Avaya’s own implementation projects when additional resources are needed to meet demand.

In recognition of the multivendor nature of today’s business networks, Avaya Platinum partners earn their status not only by certifying staff members in the operation of Avaya systems and software, but also in the operation of solutions offered by other major information technology vendors. In addition, Platinum partner companies must meet rigorous service delivery and customer satisfaction criteria, develop comprehensive marketing plans and meet annual revenue commitments for the sale of Avaya solutions and services.

“Unity Telecom and our more than 1,500 Avaya BusinessPartners here in North America are integral to Avaya’s strategy – helping us extend our reach, support a broader set of customers and develop new specialties in specific technologies and markets so we can offer our customers more complete solutions,” said Ken Archer, vice president, North America Channels, Avaya. “Offering a certification program means our customers can be assured they are working with a trusted vendor who can help them use communications as a strategic business tool to deliver new value to their bottom line.”

One of the customers benefiting from Unity’s relationship with Avaya is Sandvik Inc., a company that uses Avaya technology both across the US and Canada: “Unity’s international presence fits perfectly with Sandvik’s geographic model, and their coverage across Canada in particular meets our requirement for local service and support at every location”, says Tom Lumpkin, Sandvik’s Telecommunications Manager. He adds, “The Unity sales, service and support teams have also provided Sandvik with the guidance and expertise to work closely with our own staff to evolve our systems to a corporate IP converged platform. This has allowed Sandvik to enjoy the benefits of Avaya’s IP-based solutions through cost savings, productivity gains, and most importantly an enhanced service experience for our customers.”

“ Avaya’s in-depth certification program has been an enormous benefit to Unity says Dave Sherry, President, Unity Telecom. Our ongoing commitment to education ensures that our sales, technical and applications experts are always equipped with the latest skills required to maximize Unity’s support for all of our customers. For sophisticated end users like Sandvik our “Platinum Status” ensures them that Unity is among the most qualified and knowledgeable solution providers in the industry, and also it assures our customers, partners and employees that this will continue moving forward.”

About Unity Telecom

Unity Telecom is a full service Business Partner for Avaya Communication, offering sales, deployment and support for the entire product portfolio. This includes Partner key systems, Merlin Magix and IP Office, through to the complete S83/5/7xx portfolio, converged voice and data solutions, CMS, wireless mobility and integrated messaging. Unity has decades of experience along with the technical skills, tools and best practices necessary to provide the very best in customer care. Sales and sales engineering teams configure creative, ROI-based solutions and relate these solutions directly to a customer’s specific needs. Unity has direct service coverage in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Phoenix AZ, and an extensive network of Canadian and US partners enables full deployment and service coverage in all other cities as well as remote locations. For more information go to www.unitytelecom.net.

About Avaya

Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®. Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) telephony systems and communications software applications and services.

Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications – and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya website: www.avaya.com.