Avaya made quite the splash at GITEX this year, with a huge booth full of offerings to show their customers, and a focus on helping consumers understand how Avaya can make the world of communication more streamlined for every industry. Since 2018, and the exit of Chapter 11 will mark a significant transition for the Avaya brand, I was keen to speak to the leaders in the business about the ways that the company will be evolving in the coming years.
Fortunately, I had a chance to sit down for an interview with the CTO for Avaya, Laurent Philonenko, who shared his insights with me, and a group of my peers at the GITEX conference.
What Significant Changes Have You Seen in Your Time as CTO?
Laurent Philonenko has been the CTO for Avaya for four years now, so the first thing I wanted to know was which big changes he's noticed during his time in the position. He began by acknowledging that we're living in an era of rapid change, where evolution in the technology world appears to be constant:
"The environment for communication four years ago was very different to what we have today. Four years ago, we were looking at the functionality of voice in the enterprise. Now, we're considering customer experience, combined technologies, security, and a range of concerns we never imagined before."
"New strategies like cloud computing have emerged, and our customers are facing different issues that we need to help them address. One of the things I've noticed is that our partnerships have grown increasingly important over the years. No matter who you are, it's impossible to satisfy all customer needs, so it's important to become part of a network that allows you to react quickly, and provide the solutions customers need."
Interestingly, on the Avaya stand at GITEX, many of the products and solutions shown weren't under an Avaya flag. Instead, Avaya has been showing use cases that work with their partners and customers, with their services in the background.
What is the Avaya Business Model Now?
With so many changes happening for Avaya, it's reasonable to wonder whether the brand is in fact a hardware and software vendor, or whether they've evolved into something else. Laurent noted that the company received the award for "Software Vendor of Year" the day before at ICT Achievement Awards:
"While we certainly do a lot of software, we also want to be an integrator, delivering solutions and applications to our customers. If you look at our business today, it's essentially built around software and services. However, we're also considering devices too. For Avaya, it's all about delivering innovation to strengthen the UC space."
Laurent went on to note that Avaya has many customers and partner options to consider. "Our number one vertical is healthcare, but we're also big in financial and contact centres too. The government is becoming more significant for us, and we're considering partnerships to become more vertical. In fact, we're working with traditional partners, alongside system integrators too."
How Is Avaya Applying the Blockchain to UC?
One of the biggest announcements that Avaya has made recently, is their decision to start investing in blockchain technology. Currently, Laurent suggested that they're exploring various use options for the technology, with one option being the consideration of contact centre fraud, and fraud management.
