IBM and Avaya Team to Integrate Audio with Collaboration Tools; ''Click-to-Call'' and Integrated Audio Conferencing Solutions Bring Enhanced Features to Email, Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing Users.

SOMERS, N.Y. & BASKING RIDGE, N.J. -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Avaya (NYSE: AV) today announced an agreement to integrate Avaya audio based communication within IBM's enterprise email, Web conferencing and instant messaging offerings.

The integration of industry leading telephony capabilities from Avaya with IBM's market leading enterprise collaboration products will enable "click-to-call" capabilities in email and instant messaging products and integrated audio capabilities in Web conferences. These new capabilities can help organizations of any size save time and increase efficiency and productivity by immediately and seamlessly extending the collaborative experience to include audio within the context of the work being done.

Building on its success and innovation in the area of contextual collaboration, IBM is teaming with Avaya to help make businesses more agile, responsive, and productive through the seamless integration of audio and collaboration tools. This integration will introduce "click-to-call" capabilities, enabling businesses using IBM(R) Lotus Notes(R) and Domino(R) and IBM Lotus(R) Sametime(R) to instantly place a telephone call to an instant messaging or email contact while remaining in their inbox or instant messaging client. By selecting multiple names, users will be able to "click-to-conference" for faster decision making and problem solving. IBM will also be integrating audio conferencing provided by Avaya Meeting Exchange with Lotus' Web conferencing solutions, giving Web conference participants a visual indication of who is speaking and the ability to dial out to new participants, mute lines and control volume, among other capabilities.

With this announcement, Avaya customers can now leverage the productivity enhancing capabilities of IBM's enterprise collaboration tools while IBM customers can now benefit from the reliability and security features of Avaya's audio capabilities.

"Businesses are asking for ways to leverage the value of audio integration within the context of the work they are doing, without having to replace their existing IT infrastructure," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software. "Now, organizations can seamlessly transition between email, instant messaging and a phone call, extending the value of their existing infrastructure while enabling faster and more efficient responses to marketplace dynamics."

"These integrated solutions mark another step forward in delivering intelligent communications by giving employees new ways to reach the right people at the right time to speed decision-making and customer service," said Michael C. Thurk, group vice president, Avaya Enterprise Communications Group. "This is a significant expansion in our relationship with IBM and we look forward to continuing to work together in helping businesses communicate and collaborate effectively."

The "click-to-call" and integrated audio capabilities are built on a common telephony service provider interface (TSPI) established by IBM. The TSPI allows telephony providers, such as Avaya, to build off of this framework, exposing a rich set of communication services and capabilities to end users and empowering business application developers to layer new value over these capabilities using standard integration components and tools.

IBM and Avaya have a long-standing relationship that has produced solutions across a range of technologies, including Contact Center, IP Telephony, and Speech Self-Service. The scope of the relationship is now expanding with this announcement of integration with IBM Lotus collaborative solutions. In addition, IBM has deployed Avaya IP-based audio conferencing capabilities for portions of its Americas workforce.

"Click-to-call" functionality and Web conferencing integration is scheduled to be available with Lotus Sametime in the fourth quarter of 2005 and with Lotus Notes and Domino in the first quarter of 2006. Integration with IBM Workplace Collaboration Services is expected in the future.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Software offers a wide range of middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the on demand era. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM Software home page at http://www.software.ibm.com.

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(R). 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.

IBM, Lotus, Lotus Notes, Domino, Sametime and Workplace are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. All other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.