Avaya IP Office is a business telephone systems platform that provides free-of-charge telephony applications, including PhoneManager Lite, VoiceMail Lite and CTI interfaces (details are given within the price list). These free-of-charge applications can be upgraded to provide enhanced functionality.All chargeable applications are enabled by the use of a license key. For these applications to work, a PC (running Microsoft Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, XP and Vista) must also be provided, and must be connected to the same LAN as the IP Office switch. This PC must run the IP Office License Service, and should be permanently switched on and connected to the LAN.
Licensing is achieved by the use of a feature key (dongle), which plugs into the PC's parallel port, USB port or the Serial Port on the IP Office 406v2, 412 and Small Office control units. The IP 500 system uses a Smart Card dongle. These feature keys contain a serial number which is used to validate licenses. The Feature Key serial number must be provided with any order for charged applications. All license keys are stored on the IP Office switch. This means that if the hardware fails - a rare event - full functionality can quickly be restored by installing a replacement system unit and restoring the previous configuration, significantly increasing the resilience of the system.
The license keys are periodically validated against the License Service. If the PC is not running, or the Feature Key (dongle) is unplugged (or otherwise unavailable), then the licenses will beinvalidated (and therefore the applications will not work, or will provide 'Lite' functionality) until the system can re-validate them. A short grace period is provided, to ensure that transient network problems do not affect the level of service provided by the system. As soon as the connection between the IP Office system unit and the License Service is restored, the licenses become valid again.
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