Leaders in digital transformation (DX), communication, and collaboration, Avaya is an American technology business with impact across the globe. Specialising in enterprise communication software and hardware, Avaya has overcome incredible odds to achieve exceptional results as a growing brand.
Currently, Avaya offers services and support to more than 1 million customer locations. The company is built on a commitment to bringing people together through streams of information delivered in the right places, with the proper context.
Let’s get to know this fantastic company a little better.
Introducing Avaya: Experts in Unified Communication
With its headquarters in Santa Clara, California, Avaya has a reach that spans the world. Currently, the organisation has over 8,700 employees, who rate the brand as “above average” (3.2 out of 5) for employee satisfaction. The average revenue for Avaya as of 2017 is $3.27 billion, with CEO Jim Chirico leading the way.
Avaya started life in 1995, as part of “Lucent Technologies.” Before then, Avaya had roots with AT&T, as an organisation committed to understanding communication technology, and implementing it in the best possible way for future customers. In the year 2000, Lucent broke the Avaya part of their business off in the form of the “Enterprise Communications Group.” The organisation adopted the name “Avaya” as a way of conveying the seamless flow of open communication. From that point, the business began to thrive, launching their Converged Communications roadmap in 2002, followed by Avaya MultiVantage Communications in 2003.
In 2004, Avaya delivered the first multimedia contact centre for mid-sized companies, and in 2005, their Aura Experience portal came to life. By 2007, with the arrival of the Avaya Customer Interaction Suite, the company had been purchased by two private equity firms, Silver Lake Partners and TPG Capital for $8.2 billion.
The Ups and Downs of the Avaya Brand
Following the purchase in 2007, Avaya began accelerating their marketplace strategies, with new integrated communication solutions in Avaya Aura, and the Aura Contact Centre in 2010. Of course, Avaya has seen some ups and downs in its roadmap. On January 19th, 2017, the business filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11.
Fortunately, Avaya had a plan in place. The company sold its networking business to Extreme Networks for USD 100 million in July 2017 and emerged with new leadership under CEO Jim Chirico by the end of the year. Avaya now had a revitalized strategy based on software, a cloud-first architecture, and a commitment to emerging technologies like blockchain and Artificial Intelligence.
On the 15th of December 2017, Avaya became a public company again, trading under the stock ticker “AVYA.” By mid-2018, the company had once again become a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications (for the 9th time), and Contact Centre technology (for the seventeenth time).
Avaya’s Top Competitors
As a leader in the UC and Contact Centre technology sectors, Avaya has some serious competition from major brands looking to take their share of two thriving marketplaces. Avaya’s top competitors right now include:
- Mitel: A telecommunications company focusing on unified communications
- Cisco: A multi-national technology conglomerate selling networking hardware, communication software, and various other products
- Microsoft: One of the biggest technology companies in the world, specialising in software, hardware, and innovation
Mitel vs. Avaya: Choosing Your Path to UC
Avaya vs. Cisco: Creating Your UC Roadmap
Avaya vs. Microsoft: Two Giants in the UC Space
What Does Avaya Do Best?
Avaya began with a reputation in hardware and endpoints. However, their portfolio has grown significantly in recent years. Today, Avaya creates products and solutions for:
- Unified communications: Tools designed to simplify the proliferation of everyday technologies for audio conferencing, video, messaging, presence, and more into a single pane of glass.
- Hardware: Avaya’s line-up of devices both enhances the UC experience and supports contact centre Smart devices and desktop phones come together to provide ease-of-use, seamless integration, and location diversity.
- Cloud: Avaya provides a range of subscription services hosted in the cloud for voice over IP, video conferencing, remote collaboration and unified communications.
- Contact Centre: Avaya offers both desk phones and UC management experiences for the contact centre, as well as workforce optimisation and customer experience management solutions.
The Avaya Product Portfolio
Avaya’s product and service portfolio is enormous, with new solutions being added every day. To help you better understand the benefits that Avaya can bring to your business, let’s explore some of the most popular components in their selection.
Avaya Oceana
Designed to enhance the customer experience strategy in a world driven by CX, Avaya Oceana simplifies client service. Oceana connects every piece of the CX strategy with a complete overview of your clients wherever and whenever they choose to connect. Perfect for companies seeking an omnichannel approach to service, Oceana helps you to deliver a consistent and personalised customer experience through every device or channel with:
- Customer analytics
- Cloud flexibility
- Agent performance visualization
- Real-time customer context across all channels
Avaya Equinox
Intended to maintain productivity and efficiency, Avaya Equinox provides action-oriented workflow solutions to customers through a single pane of glass communications services. On mobile and desktop, users can take immediate action with a single touch, access browser-based collaboration, multi-media messaging, and even video conferencing. Avaya Equinox boosts productivity and simplifies communication with:
- Calling messaging and conferencing features
- Simple collaboration across all devices
- Rich HD video and audio
- Zero-download software
- Flexible deployment (on-premises or in the cloud)
There’s also Avaya Equinox Meetings online to enhance communication and collaboration with colleagues, customers, and partners through WebRTC technology. 1080p HD video and wideband audio are available with just a single click on a meeting link.
Read the UC Today review of Avaya Equinox Meetings Online
Avaya Spaces (Zang)
As the world continues to move towards higher demands for collaboration and communication services, Avaya offers a unique team-based app for more natural interactions. Avaya Spaces is a cloud-based meeting app that integrates video, voice, file sharing and more into an application you can use anywhere, on any device. Avaya Spaces comes with:
- Single sign-on security
- Web and mobile access
- Room messaging
- File sharing
- Video calling and conferencing
- Voice conferencing
- Application integrations
- Group task management
Avaya IP Office
A market-leading Business Communications system, Avaya IP Office creates an incredible experience for collaboration, through messaging, telephony, conferencing, video, unified communications and contact centre. The IP Office platform integrates with Avaya Equinox to give you the perfect all-around UC environment. There’s also a selection of devices and phones to choose from to boost your on-premise experience. With Avaya IP Office you can:
- Choose from a range of deployment options, including IP office in the cloud
- Maximize the flexibility and scalability of your communications service
- Access a full stack solution for UC, and contact centre management
- Protect existing investments in phones and hardware while you move to the cloud
Read the UC Today review of the Avaya IP Office
Read the UC Today review of the Avaya IP Office – Cloud
Read the UC Today review of Powered by IP Office
Avaya Aura Platform
Intended for the modern contact centre, Avaya Aura Platform is Avaya’s CCaaS solution, providing unified communication and contact centre services throughout the enterprise. You can use Aura to build your communications services on the cloud, on-premise, or in a hybrid model. With a streamlined service available both on-premise and in the cloud, scaling your communication experience couldn’t be simpler.
- Enjoy the resiliency of a UC and contact centre platform with 99.999% availability
- Continue moving your digital transformation journey forward with SIP-based and digital solutions that renew your investment
- Choose from over 700 features across an ever-growing portfolio of applications.
- Rely on a platform with incredible adaptability and access to the latest customer service solutions
Read the UC Today review of Avaya Aura Communication Manager
Read the UC Today review of Avaya Aura Contact Center
Read the UC Today review of Avaya Cloud Contact Center options
Read the UC Today review of Avaya Aura Messaging
Avaya Workforce Optimisation
Want to tap into the full potential of your contact centre workforce? That’s precisely what Avaya’s Workforce Optimisation service can help you to do. Use state of the art technology to tap into intelligent insights into performance, operational efficiency, and customer service. You’ll be able to spot customer problems and address issues quickly, enhance compliance with regulations like GDPR and PCI, and boost productivity throughout your enterprise.
The Workforce Optimisation service integrates natively with Avaya’s portfolio, including Avaya Customer Experience Management solutions.
Avaya Ava
One of the most compelling recent introductions from Avaya, Avaya Ava is a state-of-the-art cloud AI solution that helps companies to engage with customers using the current trend of messaging and text. Avaya Ava allows you to connect with your customers through chat, messaging, and social media. The service features natural language processing, chatbot services, and digital interactions for better self-service capabilities for brands. Ava can even use context analysis in communications to respond more appropriately to specific cases. Features include:
- 34 language support for NLP
- AI and machine-learning chatbots
- Social media mining capabilities
- Seamless omnichannel with text automation
- Cloud flexibility
Avaya Vantage Devices
Perhaps some of the most innovative endpoints in the current marketplace, Avaya Vantage devices are the industry’s only desktop device providing both the benefits of a desk phone and the flexibility of a software solution. With an innovative desktop device at its core, the Vantage solution offers access to voice, chat, and collaboration apps through a simple one-touch surface. Avaya Aura customers can even integrate their Equinox experience with the Vantage device. Features include:
- Modern all-glass design with capacitive touchscreen
- Available soft clients
- Wideband audio
- Natural engagement with multi-channel communication syncing
- Ease of use for a more productive workflow
Avaya Scopia Video Conferencing
Avaya Scopia is Avaya’s approach to scalable, powerful and accessible multi-party video conferencing and collaboration. With Scopia, customers can build on their existing endpoints and investments with new HD video conferencing solutions. You can build your own advanced room systems, access Scopia on mobile endpoints, or create virtual conference rooms. Features include:
- H.323 and SIP compatibility
- HD continuous presence
- 1080p video and content
- Video auto attendant
- Unified management of video deployments
- Multi-tenancy
- UC integration
Read the UC Today review of Avaya Scopia Video Conferencing Solutions
Avaya CU-360 Collaboration Unit
Take your meeting room and huddle room experiences to the next level with the Avaya CU-360 Collaboration unit. A unique piece of hardware that allows companies to add video and conferencing solutions into their meeting rooms and spaces, this offering from Avaya is ready to make video available to anyone. With great 4k camera sensor technology, easy set-up and access to services like Equinox Meetings online, it’s excellent for any huddle room. Features include:
- Integrated WiFi
- All-in-one easy to connect system
- 4K display and camera
- Full interoperability with SIP and H.323
Read the UC Today review of the Avaya CU-360 Collaboration Unit
Avaya J100 Series IP Phones
Simple, yet effective endpoints that put user experience first. The J100 Series of IP phones from Avaya provide an incredible way to modernise your desktop with the latest SIP-based IP phones, complete with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. All phones come with a selection of state-of-the-art features, web browser-based administration, and a dynamic user interface with contact groups, calendar views and more.
These high-quality phones are designed to last a lifetime, with ergonomic weighted handsets, and the option to migrate from H.323 to SIP.
Read the UC Today review of the Avaya J100 Series IP Phones
What do YOU think of our Avaya Buyer’s Guide? We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback – let us know in the comments section below. Thanks.
