Big UC News from Avaya, Zoom, Microsoft and Tango Networks

Avaya CEO Alan Masarek — ‘Avaya is Back’

In an exclusive interview with UC Today at this week’s Avaya ENGAGE, Avaya CEO Alan Masarek discussed his one-year anniversary in the role and ENGAGE’s key trends.

My hope was that the takeaway was that, undeniably, unquestionably, Avaya is back. I think that came through in just complete clarity.”

Additionally, Masarek provided insights into his vision for Avaya going forward and how the past year lay the foundations for the next stage of fulfilling that vision.

“All that work we’ve done on the core business about resetting product strategy, the go-to-market strategy, resetting things thematically about what we refer to as innovation without disruption,” Masarek said. “Organising the company in support of those strategies and then revitalizing the culture has really happened. Our partners have been really supportive.”

Another Avaya announcement this week, timed alongside ENGAGE, was the release of multiple platform integrations and capabilities, as well as expanded partnerships with Google Cloud and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, signalling the start of a growth period at the company.

Avaya has introduced multiple hybrid Avaya Experience Platform services and Avaya Experience Platform Connect. Platform Connect enables businesses to use their current on-premises infrastructure for voice routing, call handling, and more.

Through its collaboration with Google Cloud, Avaya can produce a new wave of contact centre AI solutions, which leverage Avaya’s contact centre technology alongside Google Cloud’s AI and machine learning capabilities. Its partnership with ALE is also aiding its customers to meet their digital transformation ambitions.

As it has exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Masarek has been establishing Avaya’s new CCaaS-focused, “innovation without disruption” vision in place, as well as adding three new hires to its C-Suite.

• Watch UC Today’s exclusive interview with Alan Masarek
• Read more about Avaya’s platform and partnership growth

Zoom Introduces Platform to Sony TVs and Launches Scheduler Solution

Zoom has partnered with Sony to bring its video communications and collaboration platform to BRAVIA TVs.

The solution, available as a Zoom for TV app through Google TV, aims to help users easily connect with colleagues for video meetings in remote or hybrid working situations.

We are thrilled to work with Sony to bring Zoom to their BRAVIA TVs,” said Eric Yu, Head of Hardware Partnership at Zoom. “We are allowing our customers to enjoy the best of both worlds – the convenience of video conferencing on their TV and the power of Zoom’s collaboration tools.”

Zoom on BRAVIA TV leverages the feature set of Zoom’s platform — including screen sharing and collaboration tools as well as video communications through the TV — with BRAVIA Camera’s advanced features. These involve spatial recognition of where users are in the room and how far they might be from the TV, data which the camera can then use to adapt the sound and picture settings.

Zoom for TV will be available on BRAVIA TVs compatible with a BRAVIA camera early this summer.

In other Zooms news, the vendor announced a new calendar alignment solution, Zoom Scheduler, to reduce friction for planning meetings and improve collaboration.

Zoom Scheduler aims to minimise the “toggle tax” of moving between different applications like a user’s email, calendar, and video communications service, which impacts productivity. Zoom Scheduler is appointment scheduling and management within Zoom’s platform. Users generate availability slots for meeting attendees, and then the attendees can choose a preferred time that works for everyone.

The solution syncs with Zoom Mail and Calendar, Google Calendar, and Microsoft 365 to ensure users’ scheduling and communications services are collated when they need to organise and join a meeting. Users can assess availability across every application or platform which participants use when planning a meeting.

Zoom Scheduler is now generally available.

• Read more about Zoom’s BRAVIA partnership
• Read more about Zoom Scheduler

Microsoft Launches Collaborative Notes Teams Solution and Aims to Simplify International Meeting Planning with New Update

Microsoft has made collaborative notes for Teams meetings available in public preview and included in a targeted release program. The new feature allows meeting attendees to collaborate by taking notes, forming agendas, and creating action items.

This new version of Teams meeting notes syncs edits to the notes across all attendee devices, providing a more seamless collaborative experience. Attendees are not confined to a single app as collaborative notes will be instantly updated whether they are shared in Teams, Outlook, Loop, Word for Web, or Whiteboard.

“This fall, the integration of Loop components with OneNote will enable you to seamlessly incorporate your Collaborative notes into your OneNote notebooks,” said Emily Kirby, Microsoft Tech Community employee at Microsoft. “You will have the freedom to continue editing these notes within OneNote, helping you consolidate your meeting notes in a single, centralized notebook.”

It’s been another busy week for Teams, with an intriguing update being added to the 365 Roadmap that signalled that the platform would soon suggest start times for users scheduling meetings across different time zones by syncing with each participant’s location.

The new feature aims to streamline organising meetings across different time zones and will also include further suggestions to make the process more time-efficient and reduce potential confusion. Teams will also potentially flag local holidays to simplify meeting scheduling further.

In practice, the feature will remove the stress of Teams users having to double-check the timezones of colleagues or clients when scheduling the meeting or losing track of when the meeting was supposed to occur. Its automatic syncing and informed suggestions should also save users’ time from negotiating which slot would best work as a compromise over email or messaging.

The feature will roll out in general availability for Web and Desktop in July.

• Read more about Teams’ collaborative notes
• Read more about Teams’ streamlined process for cross-time zone meetings

Tango Networks Empowers Frontline Workers with Teams Phone eSIMS

Tango Networks has launched eSIMS for Teams Phone to empower frontline workers.

The offering, Tango Extend, turns mobile phones into an extension of a Teams-enabled fixed-line phone number from certified operators. The service utilises Teams’ SIP Gateway technology to mobilise fixed-line phone numbers. This allows employees working remotely or on the go to make and receive Teams calls through the native dialer on their mobile phones.

Andrew Bale, President of Tango Networks, commented:

Today’s work-from-anywhere world demands simple and easy-to-operate communications to boost productivity. Tango Extend brings business communications to any worker in any location. With Tango Extend, business customers can get more from their investment in Teams.”

Tango Extend adopts a “dual persona” strategy that transforms Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) mobile phones into business-ready extensions of Teams while keeping personal communications separate. The solution incorporates an e-SIM in a multi-SIM personal mobile which the company controls. This allows work and personal communications to be distinct and secured as dual personas.

• Read more