Avaya’s CMO on Delivering an Evolved Experience Economy

Avaya goes above and beyond to serve its customers

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Published: April 3, 2020

Rob Scott

Rob Scott

Publisher

With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe, companies of all sizes in the communication and collaboration industry have begun to demonstrate their value. Avaya, one of the world leaders in communication and collaboration, is just one of the companies making a real difference to the landscape today.

Despite joining the company at a strange time in the communication industry, Simon Harrison has jumped into the opportunity to show the world what a communication leader can do for companies in times of crisis. Avaya has been expanding its free offers of communication and collaboration apps, ensuring that businesses can maintain continuity in these uncertain days.

I spoke with Avaya CMO, Simon Harrison, about the latest measures that Avaya is taking.

How Is Avaya Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Simon Harrison
Simon Harrison

Simon noted that the speed at which the world has changed in the last couple of weeks has been incredible. We’re all facing a strange scenario, where people are stuck inside their homes, unable to travel to work or meet with loved ones. However, Harrison told me that because Avaya is equipped with some of the most innovative communication technology in the market, they’re in a unique position to help the world overcome this threat.

“I think we’ve made a huge difference already. I joined Avaya in part because of the huge heart within the company. From the beginning of this epidemic, Avaya has been on the front lines, delivering free audio and video equipment to hospitals in Wuhan. We’ve helped China’s airlines deploy home solutions for remote airlines, and I hear success stories every day about the work we’re doing.”

Simon noted that Avaya had seen a 700% increase in the use of its collaboration platform since they began offering the Spaces service for free to non-profit, healthcare and educational companies. Around the world, Avaya’s technology has helped huge companies to evolve. In Korea, the company helped one of the country’s largest telecom providers to move over 1,500 agents into remote working. In Northern India, Avaya technology is being used to enable work-from-home solutions for millions of inhabitants. “We even worked with the UP112 emergency call centre to ensure a quick response time, even with agents working from home.”

Tell Us How Avaya is Making a Difference?

Simon told me that he was blown away by all the work that Avaya is doing to support people in this new and sudden age of remote working. In the EMEA landscape, education institutions are using Avaya Spaces to communicate with students and parents, making sure that children can continue to learn from a distance. The University of Milan is even using Avaya solutions to create virtual classrooms and information sessions too.

“Even families wanting to meet with pastors for church have been able to use Avaya to create these crucial environments in a virtual landscape”

According to Simon, we’re living in a world where everything is agile, dynamic, and unplanned. The traditional workspace where every meeting and call needed to be scheduled months in advance has been replaced with something much more changeable. We’re constantly evolving and improving in the way that we communicate, tapping into new technology at the very edge of innovation, like augmented reality and virtual assistants. “Avaya Spaces started as one of those innovation-at-the-edge solutions. Now, it’s surfaced as a reliable way for companies to address the problems of the traditional UC market.”

Avaya is allowing companies from all around the world to meet and connect in an innovative and more agile format, without having to compromise on productivity. In collaboration with Avaya, for instance, the Italian Regione Liguria government is now allowing employees to collaborate and communicate remotely. One of the largest telecom providers in Germany has enabled another 7,000 employees to work from anywhere with access to Avaya technology, keeping them safe in these times of crisis.

How is Avaya Continuing to Help Customers During COVID-19?

Although Avaya has been on the cutting edge of the fight to support companies in the coronavirus pandemic since day one, the business isn’t resting on its laurels now. “We’re offering the kind of tools that support the new and evolved communication market. We’re delivering something that’s valuable, extensible, and innovative. Our tools aren’t just ticking boxes, they’re solving real problems, allowing people to work with the tools that they need, and access the latest innovations when they arrive.”

In recent months, Avaya has been able to align its values around innovation and philanthropy to not only roll out more services to customers, but make sure that crucial tools are available for free. Avaya is now offering 60-day free access to the Avaya Spaces solution for team collaboration and meetings. The offer started off as being eligible for education institutions and non-profits. However, now, Spaces is available organisations of any kind in need of additional collaboration support.

What’s more, Avaya is also offering 90-day licenses for free to a wide range of Avaya UC solutions compatible with almost every Avaya platform. This will help organisations to transition their teams into crucial environments for remote working and productivity.Jörg Meinunger, Deutsche Telekom IT GmbH, said:

“Thanks to the specific advice and support from Avaya, within 4 days we were given the ability to provide an additional 7,000 employees at our service centres to work from anywhere. Our agents are now in a position to provide our customers with comprehensive advice from the home office and help them with questions and uncertainties.”

“This enables us to always focus on the needs of our customers – even in challenging times – like the ones we are currently experiencing”, he concluded

Is the Future of Work Going to Change Post COVID-19?

Simon told me that he believes that the change in our working strategy is going to be a fundamental one in the new era after COVID-19. Remote and anywhere work has been proven as a potential opportunity for a lot of businesses.

“People are almost being forced to realise just how beneficial work anywhere technology can be. They’ve had a chance to test the methods for themselves and discover that it can make them more productive and efficient while reducing costs and frictions in the workplace.”

Harrison told me that the collaboration and communication landscape on the cloud suits the hyper-reactive and unplanned world that we live in.

“There’s no going back once people discover just how beneficial this environment can be”

 

 

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