Unified Communications Council - International Avaya User Group

Unified Communications Council

Unified Communications Council: 3^rd Tuesday of each month at 2:00pm CT

The Unified Communications Council is organized around Avaya’s Communications platforms and products for enterprises large and small. The Council assists Avaya in identifying new products and features beneficial to our members, as well as assisting members who experience issues while working with Avaya or an Avaya business partner. Products covered by this council include the Avaya Aura® Platform, Communication Manager, CS1000, Avaya Aura® Messaging, Session Border Controllers, and voice endpoint devices, as well as Avaya Collaborative Cloud™, Avaya Conferencing platforms such as Avaya Spaces. In addition, the council covers the range of professional and operational services provided by Avaya and Avaya business partners.

Virtually every IAUG member could contribute to the Unified Communications Council, says Kim Heintze, chair. “We look at the core of Avaya’s portfolio, from Avaya Aura™ and Communication Manager to the legacy CS 1000 and the latest collaboration and video conferencing platforms,” he says. “Our members learn something on every conference call, and often tell me, ‘I should have joined sooner!’”

Council members also have an opportunity to provide feedback to Avaya’s managers and engineers on the wide range of product lines, upgrades, and features. They can also discuss current issues while working with Avaya or an Avaya business partner. Another benefit is getting an early look at Avaya’s upcoming engagement and collaborative solutions, and sharing that information with their companies and local IAUG chapters.

Chairs:

Kim Heintze
Senior Telecom & Network Engineer

Kim Heintze has long been active in IAUG, serving as council chair since 2013 and as president of Avaya Users of Central Texas. He has also presented regularly at Avaya ENGAGE conferences. Kim began his career in telecom in 1986 and holds a certificate in electrical and electronics engineering from ITT Technical Institute-Austin.

Anna DiFilippo
Senior Technical Support Analyst, UTS/Telecommunications

Anna is a Senior Technical Support Analyst for McMaster University, UTS/Telecommunications. She has worked for McMaster for 25+ years. Her focus is supporting the voice infrastructure for the university. Anna's telecommunications career began when she was a switchboard operator for the university and she has been immersed in this field ever since.

Avaya Champion:

April Owusu
Solutions Marketing Specialist

April has been selling and marketing Unified Communications solutions with Avaya for four years. She has a Bachelor's of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin. Within Avaya, she focuses on creating messaging and executing strategy surrounding Avaya unified communications and contact center offers.

Roger Wallman
Senior Manager, Solutions Marketing

Roger is a subject matter expert within Avaya's marketing team and has extensive experience in digital communications ranging from unified communications and collaboration to contact center and customer experience. With a career spanning product management and marketing of a broad range of communications solutions, Roger joined Avaya in 2012. In his role at Avaya, Roger is responsible for creation and execution of solution marketing strategies across the Avaya portfolio.