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Avaya and Radvision partners see positives in Avaya's planned $230 million acquisition of videoconferencing specialist Radvision, but are cautioning Avaya to make clear to partners right away how they expect those video products to be sold through channel partners.

Avaya confirmed the $230 million acquisition Thursday: a pickup that gives Avaya an in-house option for video endpoints and infrastructure to complement its unified communications dominance and be a fully integrated part of its Aura UC platform, instead of relying on third-party OEM or strategic video partnerships.

The deal bolsters Avaya's ability to compete with Cisco, Polycom and LifeSize Communications in the enterprise videoconferencing space -- even if it means dumping partner agreements with Polycom and LifeSize down the line.

It's a statement move by Avaya, most solution providers agreed, especially as Avaya heads for an initial public offering. And it's especially good for Radvision, which has struggled to recover from the loss of a lucrative OEM agreement with Cisco two years ago.

"Avaya had been dabbling in video and not really committed to it," said Mike Brandofino, executive vice president, video and communications for Tampa-based solution provider AVI-SPL. "They had the LifeSize OEM and the Polycom resell relationship, but to go head-to-head against Cisco and Polycom, if you don't have a complete solution that's yours, you're at a disadvantage. So it's good for Avaya. And for Radvision, they needed to find a home after they were used and then kicked to the curb by Cisco. It's a great technology and a great platform."

[Related: Where's The Puck Going In Enterprise Videoconferencing? ]

AVI-SPL, ranked No. 48 on CRN's 2011 VAR500 listing and one of the country's top video integrators, has been a Radvision partner for two years, and doesn't resell Avaya PBX products but has been brought in to support Avaya in deals where video integration work was required, Brandofino said.

When Cisco acquired Tandberg in 2010, it too readily opened up Tandberg video products to UC and data networking-focused Cisco partners that didn't have video backgrounds, Brandofino said, and also had a host of initial problems with distribution of the products.

The same thing could happen at Avaya, Brandofino warned.

"Cisco kind of messed up that distribution in the beginning by allowing folks who didn't really sell video to sell it," Brandofino said. "Avaya is a whole lot of audio and voice integrators that don't know know a lot about video. It will be interesting to see how they get those folks up to speed. I hope they set the bar for the people allowed to sell that technology high."

Brandofino urged Avaya not to ignore Radvision's channel partners and use the input of those partners to determine how it will certify partners to sell Radvision video.

"I'd much rather see us partnering with Avaya resellers," he said. "We don't sell your audio stuff, but if you have video opportunities, bring us in, and we'll do it, especially if it's a managed services component. It'll be a while before Avaya resellers are able to do that on their own, so Avaya should foster relationships with the prior [Radvision] reseller channel and make sure they keep that expertise."

Avaya needs to come up with a clear plan and communicate that as soon as possible to partners, VARs said.

"The key is Avaya's ability to integrate and get the playbooks and support structure out to the partners as soon as possible," said Ed Wadbrook, vice president, applications and collaborative solutions for Carousel Industries, an Exeter, R.I.-based solution provider and one of Avaya's top national partners.

Wadbrook said Radvision brings a number of strong products to Avaya's portfolio and would also be fit for Avaya's expanded efforts around DevConnect, Avaya's program for third party app developer partners. Radvision's holdings include BEEHD, a suite of voice and video developer tools.

"What they get is room systems, telepresence, Radvision's Scopia [line] -- which includes a pretty dynamic mobile client -- and a good development environment, which goes with what Avaya's been doing with DevConnect," said Wadbrook, a former director of Avaya's Aura product group and a longtime UC executive. "It's not dissimilar to what Cisco has done in terms of pulling together more of the video assets. What Radvision has is a scalable video coding (SVC) technology that offers a more advanced approach to videoconferencing and a more judicious use of bandwidth."

Next: Was Avaya's Move A 'Knee Jerk' Reaction?

Carousel is well positioned to expand its videoconferencing business behind Avaya's move, Wadbrook said. The solution provider also partners with Polycom and other video players like Vidyo, and has been building its video practice throughout the past two years, including via a 2011 acquisition of A/V integrator OmniPresence.

"Carousel has been doing this for many years and doing it with a multi-vendor approach," Wadbrook said. "We understand the specific needs of this space and can add it to the portfolio they already have, which is unique in the community of Avaya channel partners."

Wadbrook and several partners cited the breadth of Radvision's portfolio and its emphasis on mobile video through the Scopia Mobile application as attractive to partners wrestling with customers' BYOD challenges.

"It's a real positive in that it now allows Avaya the ability to provide customers with a suite of cost effective, easy-to-use, high definition video collaboration solutions to further build out the UC portfolio," said Richard Tarity, executive vice president, sales and marketing for Transcend United, a Wayne, Pa.-based solution provider. "With that ever demanding and ever-changing BYOD market, Radvision integration into the Avaya product line is a home run."

Other Avaya partners say they'll need Avaya to be as up front as possible about how Radvision will benefit its channel and how it intends for partners to sell its associated video wares.

"It seems like a knee-jerk reaction," said Stuart Chandler, president and CEO of Optivor Technologies, an Annapolis Junction, Md.-based solution provider and top Avaya data networking partner. "They want to get further into video because Cisco had its video play, and LifeSize went to Logitech."

Chandler said he hadn't seen communication from Avaya about Radvision channel plans and that partners would need a clearly-defined strategy soon.

"The big thing for me back in the Nortel days was that information got out, and everyone was clear about strategy, and you had calls with customers and the partner community was behind it, being told why it was going to work," Chandler said. "Avaya seems to be making a lot of moves because it needs to IPO and is trying to hit quarterly numbers. They're doing things that aren't clear and defy their channel strategy. People want to hear from Avaya that it's supportive of partners and that this is important for partners."

Next: Avaya Talks Partners, Radvision Particulars

Avaya acquired Radvision for its strong technology that's complementary to Avaya's unified communications portfolio and SIP architecture, for a strong engineering group and talent pool, to have a fully integrated video solution at Avaya and to bring video intellectual property in-house so it can innovate faster, said Hugh McCullen, Avaya senior director for business development and strategic alliances.

"Video isn't just a CIO conversation, it's an end-user conversation," McCullen said. "Whether it's H.R., or finance, or the sales organization, you often have different video and applications touch points that you have to force-fit together. They're begging for a native video solution. They can natively integrate this intellectual property into the Avaya portfolio and drive seamless interoperability to promote and support BYOD."

"The important thing to note is that these endpoints and infrastructure will interoperate with Avaya on day one," said Nick Francis, Avaya's vice president of sales and marketing, video collaboration. "We'll have a full solution to sell -- a solution that will be tightly interoperable with their UC products and their data networking products -- at the beginning."

Avaya expects the acquisition to close within 90 days, and the plan right now is to keep Radvision intact -- including engineers and executive team -- and run Radvision as a business unit of Avaya focused on videoconferencing. Targeted sales teams from the combined Avaya and Radvision sales staff will attack the market, Francis said.

"But they don't want to encumber a smaller company while it's being assimilated," he said.

Avaya will provide more details on channel integration as the acquisition closes, Francis said, but will be deliberate about how it offers the Radvision products to its channel as well as how it addresses Radvision's existing partners, including the handful of solution providers Radvision has in North America.

"We are not going to require Radvision partners to become Avaya partners," Francis said. "We'll invest in the partners Radvision has and add to them their own set of partners, but it's not going to be something where they place a whole lot of demands on those partners."

Radvision represents Avaya's biggest acquisition since it bought Nortel's former enterprise unit in 2009, though the scope of the product and channel integration isn't nearly as large. It has made several small acquisitions since then, but Radvision's video footprint gives it a substantial videoconferencing boost that partners want to make sure they're a key part of.

"Don't ignore the channel," AVI-SPL's Brandofino said. "I think Cisco and Polycom both learned the hard way that it can hurt sales when the partners aren't on board with what you're doing. Avaya can reach out to us and get their viewpoints on the good and bad of what happened with Cisco, and learn from those mistakes. Keep us in the loop."

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Regional integration helps countries overcome divisions that impede the flow of goods, services, capital, people and ideas. These divisions are a constraint to economic growth, especially in developing countries. The World Bank Group helps its client countries to promote regional integration through common physical and institutional infrastructure.

Divisions between countries created by geography, poor infrastructure and inefficient policies are an impediment to economic growth. Regional integration allows countries to overcome these costly divisions integrating goods, services and factors’ markets, thus facilitating the flow of trade, capital, energy, people and ideas.

Regional integration can be promoted through common physical and institutional infrastructure. Specifically, regional integration requires cooperation between countries in:

• Trade, investment and domestic regulation;
• Transport, ICT and energy infrastructure;
• Macroeconomic and financial policy;
• The provision of other common public goods (e.g. shared natural resources, security, education).

Cooperation in these areas has taken different institutional forms, with different levels of policy commitments and shared sovereignty, and has had different priorities in different world regions.

Regional integration can lead to substantial economic gains. Regional integration allows countries to:

• Improve market efficiency;
• Share the costs of public goods or large infrastructure projects;
• Decide policy cooperatively and have an anchor to reform;
• Have a building block for global integration;
• Reap other non-economic benefits, such as peace and security.

However, there are risks to regional integration that need to be identified and managed.

• Countries may have different preferences on priorities for regional integration, depending on their connectivity gaps, economic geography, or preferences for sovereignty in specific areas.
• Regional integration’s impact on trade and investment flows, allocation of economic activity, growth, income distribution are often difficult to assess.
• Lack of adequate complementary policies and institutions may lead to inefficient outcomes. For instance, policy barriers at the border may offset the gains transport infrastructure cooperation.
• Regional integration creates winners and losers, notably within countries. Policies and institutions are needed to ensure that regionalism is inclusive and social, environmental, governance risks are managed. 

Our experts answer readers' insurance questions and write unbiased product reviews (here's how they assess insurance products). In some cases, they receive a commission from our partners; however, their opinions are their own.

Many of the best life insurance companies offer no-exam life insurance, which has the obvious appeal of skipping medical exams. 

Featured No exam Life Insurance Companies from Our Partners

Complete Editorial Review of the Best No exam Life Insurance Companies

• Ethos Life: Best Term Life Policy
• AARP Life Insurance: Best for Seniors
• USAA Life Insurance: Best for Military Members
• Prudential Life Insurance: Best for Higher Policy Limits
• Mutual of Omaha Life Insurance: Best for Guaranteed Acceptance
• AAA Life Insurance: Best for Waiting Period

Compare the Best No exam Life Insurance 

Many insurers offer a range of permanent and term life insurance policies that require a medical exam. These companies offer the best no medical exam life insurance policies. 

Best Term Life Policy

Ethos No Medical exam Life Insurance

Ethos Life accepts applicants up to age 65 with a 100% online application process, and limits are as high as $2 million. 

Ethos Life asks a few basic medical questions, but coverage is effective immediately once approved. In addition, every customer buying policies like this from Ethos Life is eligible for a 30-day look period, which is another way to say you can cancel and get your money back in the first 30 days with no penalties.

• Health questions: Yes
• Coverage limits: Up to $2 million
• Age: 20-65
• Waiting period: May apply
• Unique feature: Instant quotes available with a streamlined online application

Ethos Life Insurance Review

Best for Seniors

AARP No Medical exam Life Insurance

AARP Life Insurance caters to senior clients for insurance and many other financial products. Older adults between 50 and 74 may qualify as long as they are AARP members. Term policies are available with limits up to $150,000 in most states. Montana and New York residents may be eligible for up to $100,000. Whole life policy limits max out at $25,000.

Whole life policies can be issued without any health exams or medical questions. The term policies, on the other hand, may ask some health questions.

• Health questions: For term life policies, but not whole
• Coverage limits: Up to $150,000
• Age: 50-74
• Unique feature: No medical exam policy caters to older adults

AARP Life Insurance Review

Best for Military Members

USAA No Medical exam Life Insurance

USAA Life Insurance is typically associated with military members and their immediate family members, but its insurance products are available to anyone. Pricing is lower, payouts are higher, and customer service is strong. Of course, these services are only available to military and qualifying family members. For the children of a deceased military member to use any USAA products, the military member would need to be signed up before their death.

Guaranteed whole life policies are available in 49 states, excluding Montana. USAA life insurance coverage is available from $2,000 to $25,000 with no medical exam or questions. Applicants who want higher coverage limits can explore medical exam policy options with a licensed agent.

• Health questions: No
• Coverage limits: Up to $25,000
• Age: 45-85
• Waiting period: Two years
• Unique feature: Below-market product costs available for military members and qualifying family

USAA Life Insurance Review

Best for Higher Policy Limits

Prudential No Medical exam Life Insurance

Prudential Life Insurance offers up to $3 million in coverage for term life policies. Adults up to 60 years old are eligible for coverage with a short application involving some medical questions. For younger applicants, conversion options may also be available later to make term policies into whole life policies. However, due to the higher limits, Prudential's application process may also be longer.

• Health questions: Yes
• Coverage limits: Up to $3 million
• Age: 20-60
• Waiting period: Two years
• Unique feature: High expert and customer rankings with a trusted provider

Prudential Life Insurance Review

Best for Guaranteed Acceptance

Mutual of Omaha No Medical exam Life Insurance

Mutual of Omaha Life Insurance has high financial stability and customer satisfaction ratings across different types of insurance. Guaranteed life policies are available for adults between the ages of 45 and 85. In New York state, the age range is 50-75. Policies can be as small as $2,000 in most states and as large as $25,000 with no health questions or medical exams.

Mutual of Omaha's no medical exam policies have a graded death benefit. If you die within two years of the policy start date, the company will not pay the full policy. Instead, it delivers 110% of the premiums paid. The Mutual of Omaha website boasts same-day payouts on most policies. Policies for children are also available.

• Health questions: No
• Coverage limits: Up to $25,000
• Age: 45-85 (50-75 in New York State)
• Waiting period: Two years
• Unique feature: Company website lists same-day payment on most claims

Mutual of Omaha Life Insurance Review

Best for Waiting Period

AAA No Medical exam Life Insurance

AAA Life Insurance offers immediate death benefits for qualified applicants between 18 and 75. In other words, once your policy starts, you are eligible for the full policy benefit. Policies are available with limits as low as $25,000 and as high as $500,000. While a medical exam is not required, health questions are.

AAA offers term policies with limits as high as $500,000. For a whole life policy, the limit is $25,000. But applicants can add a rider doubling the payout for accidental death coverage. Younger people have no waiting period for benefits. For applicants over age 45, AAA pays out 130% of the premiums paid up to the date of death for the first two years.

• Health questions: Yes
• Coverage limits: Up to $500,000 term/$25,000 whole
• Age: 18-75
• Waiting period: Applies after age 45
• Unique feature: Death benefit available regardless of the cause of death

No Medical exam Life Insurance FAQs

How to Pick the Best No Medical exam Life Insurance Policy for You

Particularly when choosing life insurance, customization is critical. Buyers don't need to add every rider, but a little research goes a long way in selecting the right company. Some applicants will not qualify for a no medical exam life insurance policy. A life insurance agent can help you run quotes that make sense for you. Then agents can offer realistic insurance policy options and review the costs and benefits of each.

Asking friends and family which insurance agent they use could be your first step to finding the right life policy. Factors like age, medical history, and financial goals play key roles in your decision. So they do not recommend asking loved ones about individual policies. Instead, let a qualified insurance professional find the best policies for you.

Why You Should Trust Us: How They Chose the Best No exam Life Insurance

The coverage and riders offered are vital parts of their evaluation. They also look at the speed of payouts, customer satisfaction, and financial strength ratings. All of these factor into the immediate and long-term performance of the life insurance companies they review.

If you're looking for more information about a specific life insurer, their individual reviews offer a deep dive into individual policies, riders, and more. The same considerations are used for all competitors to ensure readers have the edge to make informed decisions in an ever-changing market.

See their insurance rating methodology for more details.