University of Marylands Business School
and Avaya Expand
Research and Development Relationship
and Activities
- Development of virtual
community prototype to enhance
collaboration between alumni,
students, faculty and staff at
Robert H. Smith School of Business
- Advancements to RFID research
at schools Netcentricity Lab and
Supply Chain Management Center
College Park, MD and Basking
Ridge, N.J. Avaya Inc (NYSE:AV) a
leading global provider of business
communications software, systems and
services, and the University of
Marylands Robert H. Smith School of
Business today announced an expansion of
their research and development
relationship with a new virtual
community project and the extension of
existing work in communications-enabling
supply chains and executive mobility
into new scenarios and applications.
Avaya and the Smith School will
develop a virtual community prototype
based on Avayas industry-leading IP
telephony solutions for mobility and
collaboration. The virtual community
will be designed to encourage greater
engagement of part-time and remote
campus students, more efficient and
effective access to and collaboration
among all students, faculty and staff,
plus provide alumni with an ongoing,
university-branded value. As a first
step in the prototype, virtual community
participants will have access to the
Avaya Unified Communications Center,
which provides a unified messaging
mailbox with speech access capabilities
to IBM Lotus Notes. Participants would
be able to choose a voice interface, Web
access or touchtone commands to interact
with calendars, tasks, voicemail, email
and faxes, plus schedule meetings and
launch conference calls with other
participants.
As leaders in business education
that prepare students for the rigors of
a digital economy, it is only fitting
that we practice what we preach and
explore solutions on the cutting edge,
said Howard Frank, dean of the Robert H.
Smith School of Business.
The Smith School and Avaya will also
build on previous collaborative research
to extend communications in radio
frequency identification (RFID) sensor
networks into supply chain management
and healthcare scenarios, and in
event-triggered conferencing for crisis
situations. Past Avaya-Smith research in
this area has resulted in significant
advances in enterprise supply chains
beginning with a project for the United
States Air Force in 2000 as well as for
the State of Maryland.
Our relationship with Avaya has a
long history that has enabled the Smith
School to develop a logistics program
with faculty and staff that rival those
found anywhere in the world, said Frank
The transformation of the supply chain
is playing an integral role in the
transformation of business, and the
Smith School, with the help of corporate
partners like Avaya is an active
participant.
Through collaborative research, the
University of Marylands Robert H. Smith
School of Business and Avaya are
demonstrating the benefits of
communication-enabling business
processes here, the business process
is the supply chain, said Ravi Sethi,
president, Avaya Labs. With the virtual
community project, well demonstrate the
benefits of communication for personal
productivity, of providing full mobile
functionality, with privacy and
security.
About the University of Maryland's
Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business
is an internationally recognized leader
in management education and research for
the digital economy. One of 13 colleges
and schools at the University of
Maryland, College Park, the Smith School
offers undergraduate, full-time and
part-time MBA, Executive MBA, PhD, and
executive education programs, as well as
outreach services to the corporate
community. The school offers its degree,
custom and certification programs in
learning locations in three continents
including North America, Europe and
Asia. More information about the Robert
H. Smith School of Business can be found
at
www.rhsmith.umd.edu.
About
Avaya
Avaya Inc. designs, builds and
manages communications networks for
more than one 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 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 Web
site:
http://www.avaya.com.
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