Avaya hosted its flagship ENGAGE event last week, with thousands of partners and customers descending on Denver, Colorado.
The conference did not disappoint, with Avaya making a host of announcements across three days.
Here are UC Today’s top takeaways from Denver.
Avaya’s RingCentral Relationship is Tighter Than Ever
Avaya and RingCentral announced a new hybrid solution at Avaya Engage, combining RingCentral’s AI-powered cloud communications with Avaya’s Aura on-premises platform.
This solution allows Avaya Aura and Avaya Cloud Office (ACO) users to collaborate seamlessly and choose their preferred call control functionality. It also integrates Avaya’s existing solutions with RingCentral’s video calling, messaging, and RingSense AI features, enhancing productivity and collaboration.
Key advancements include increased availability of RingSense AI for Avaya Aura customers, offering features like live transcriptions and video summaries to improve efficiency.
Additionally, the partnership will enhance ACO phone capabilities within Microsoft Teams by June 2024, providing seamless integration with RingCentral’s cloud PBX features.
The Avaya Experience Platform (AXP) public cloud contact centre will also be integrated within ACO, promoting unified communications and contact centre operations.
Avaya CEO Alan Masarek and RingCentral CEO Vlad Shmunis emphasised the partnership’s goal of simplifying business communications while offering reliable, enterprise-grade cloud solutions.
Avaya Experience Platform Continues to Grow
Avaya revealed enhancements for its Avaya Experience Platform (AXP) to strengthen its position in the Enterprise Customer Experience space.
The new features include several AI-powered upgrades, such as a “Bring Your Own Bots” framework allowing businesses to integrate their preferred digital assistants.
The platform now offers Avaya Agent Assist as a packaged solution to accelerate AI adoption, reduce agent stress, and improve customer interactions. Additionally, Avaya Ada, a generative AI virtual assistant, has been introduced to provide superior customer support.
The platform’s data and analytics management has been simplified to enhance customer journey orchestration, with integrations from Calabrio and Verint boosting workforce engagement capabilities.
A new solution, AXP Private Cloud – Extended Scale, targets the needs of large on-premises customers by improving performance, capacity, infrastructure management, and call survivability.
Avaya executives highlighted the company’s commitment to using AI to create personalised, proactive customer experiences and foster business growth through strategic innovation and partnerships.
Partnerships are Key
Partnerships were a key focus of ENGAGE, with Avaya CEO Alan Masarek joined virtually by Zoom CEO Eric Yuan and in-person by RingCentral boss Vlad Shmunis.
Yuan was speaking just a few months after Avaya and Zoom announced a partnership at Enterprise Connect, which integrates Avaya’s on-prem and private cloud collaboration suite with Zoom Workplace.
Shmunis, meanwhile, said the expanded partnership between the pair (outlined above) will also reduce the time it takes for RingCentral’s platform innovations to arrive on Avaya Cloud Office.
Elsewhere, a new partnership with LivePerson was announced.
Avaya and LivePerson have partnered to integrate their digital, voice, and AI technologies, allowing Avaya customers to incorporate LivePerson’s Conversational Cloud into their contact centres. This collaboration supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, aiming to create a unified, omnichannel suite for more personalised customer experiences and digital transformation.
The partnership introduces two new offerings:
- Advanced Digital Capabilities: This includes Avaya’s extensive digital channels like SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, enhanced by LivePerson’s AI and messaging solutions, supporting third-party channels and large language models for generative AI features like conversation summaries.
- Unified Insights Capabilities: This allows businesses to gather and analyse customer and agent performance data across all communication channels using LivePerson’s conversational intelligence suite to improve business processes and strategies with near real-time insights.
Edify Acquisition Brings in New Tech and Talent
This announcement wasn’t strictly made at ENGAGE (Avaya revealed the deal the week before the event) but was still a dominant topic of conversation in Denver.
Avaya has acquired Edify, known for its Edify CX platform, which integrates CCaaS and CPaaS.
Edify’s no-code engine allows service leaders to design and orchestrate customised contact centre journeys, a significant departure from typical boxed CCaaS platforms.
This flexibility appeals to Avaya’s large enterprise clients, who need tailored solutions and complex on-premise systems.
The move helps Avaya compete with rivals. It focuses its R&D on a single contact centre platform and supports its impressive 97% enterprise retention rate.
By incorporating Edify’s technology, Avaya aims to facilitate a gradual transition to cloud-based systems for its clients.
Additionally, the acquisition brings in valuable talent and reinforces Avaya’s financial and strategic stability.
