The deal with SAP will connect Avaya alerting, messaging and conferencing IP telephony capabilities with mySAP CRM applications.

The integrated system will give customer service agents the ability to work with a customer using voice, e-mail and Web communications through the mySAP CRM console.

The plug-in for mySAP CRM is expected to ship in the second quarter of 2006.

One industry analyst, Josh Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting, expressed surprise at the reason for the announcement.

"This is old stuff. Having call center systems talking to enterprise CRM products has been a fundamental requirement for a number of years," said Greenbaum.