'Transformation' seemed to be the theme of this year’s Avaya ENGAGE, and that was established on day one when Avaya CEO, Jim Chirico, took to the stage at the UC giant's keynote address here in Arizona. Chirico hit the ground running with principal metrics on the company’s progress since filing chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016. He started off by telling the room of 3,000 attendees, that Avaya remains on a mission to become a profitable business.
[caption id="attachment_26271" align="alignright" width="143"]
Jim Chirico[/caption]
Further addressing the elephant in the room, Chirico shared up-to-date figures on Avaya's outstanding debt, which today, sits at over three billion USD. Chirico said, to date, the unified communications pioneer's reclaimed more than 12 million of its shares, adding he remains confident Avaya will buy back 500 million dollars in Avaya shares by the end of 2020.
Shifting gears to some of the more pragmatic goings-on Avaya's undertaken in recent years, Chirico maintained Avaya added over 6,000 new customers in 2019. "We also led over 500 competitive displacements against the likes of Mitel, 8x8, and Five9, and we’re just getting started.”
Partners in Europe and the UK Gear Up for Avaya UCaaS
During ENGAGE 2020, I sat down with Nidal Abou Ltaif, Senior Vice President, Avaya International Sales. He opened up about European and UK-based partners getting ready for Avaya Cloud Office. He shared with UC Today, "European and UK-based partners are "Enthusiastic about ACO." According to him, partners are already implementing their strategies for the UCaaS solution backed by RingCentral.
[caption id="attachment_26272" align="alignleft" width="160"]
Nidal Abou Ltaif[/caption]
Ltaif did add, at the time of the announcement, partners expressed they were skeptical about the deal, "Avaya eventually won them over when we assured partners they'd soon have a strong multi-tenant UCaaS solution, which they'd asked for." he continued.
For now, Avaya's focus remains on training partners as to how to use and deploy Avaya Cloud Office, he told me. I did press him on one issue I'd previously failed to receive an answer on until that moment. Have partners submitted their commitment to staying by Avaya's side during this time of transition in writing? He said: "Yes, we've received several written commitments from partners after negotiations" with him and other chief Avaya leadership, including the company's CEO, who personally met with partners in Europe and the UK.
A New Cloud Roadmap
With a new cloud strategy in place, Chirico said Avaya's path to the cloud, currently in development for its over 100 million customers, will be generally available in March 2020. Powered by RingCentral technology, Avaya Cloud Office will be branded with Avaya's branding. And the CCaaS solution was on display at this year's event to give partners a glimpse.
Avaya's leader has been at the helm since 2017 and has since led the company into a period of digital transformation. The next logical step after UCaaS, CCaaS, Chirico told reporters, adding:
"We'll bring a CCaaS platform to market in 2020 after the launch of our UCaaS solution"
On the second and final day of ENGAGE, he told attendees, Avaya's increased spending on research and development as well as strengthened its efforts in the cloud space, mostly led by the nearly $500 million partnership with RingCentral. The deal includes a $125 million investment with three percent redeemable preferred equity, convertible at $16 per share. RingCentral even received a hefty advance of $375 million in stock for future payments and licensing rights, as we reported back in November 2019.
