From Microsoft revealing its Teams PSTN user numbers and a world first from SIPPIO to Avaya getting a new CEO, here are extracts from popular news stories this week.
Avaya to ‘Remove’ CEO
Avaya is ‘removing’ CEO Jim Chirico and replacing him with a former Vonage boss after revealing plans to strip out $250m of cost.
Chirico will depart abruptly on Monday and be replaced by Alan Masarek.
The move comes as Avaya grapples with its transition to the cloud which has stalled over recent quarters. The vendor was recently forced into a $600m funding raise and has seen its share price tank by more than 90 percent since the start of last year.
The vendor has now revealed that Q3 revenue will be between $575m and $580m, missing guidance by as much as $125m.
The preliminary results were disclosed alongside plans to cut costs by between $225m and $250m from “overall selling, general and administrative expenses”.
Bill Watkins, Chairman of Avaya’s Board, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Alan as President and CEO.
“Alan is a proven transformational leader, and after a rigorous search process, the Board is confident that Alan is the ideal choice to lead the company into the future.
“We look forward to benefiting from his decades of industry expertise as we take the next steps to position the company for long-term success.
“The Board and I thank Jim for his nearly 15 years of service to Avaya and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”
Who is the New Avaya CEO?
Alan Masarek is beginning as the new CEO of Avaya on August 1 after serving as the CEO of Vonage.
Avaya announced that Masarek would be the company’s President, CEO, and member of Avaya’s Board of Directors.
Microsoft Reveals Teams PSTN User Numbers
Microsoft shared its Teams PSTN user numbers during its Q4 earnings call which have nearly doubled in reaching 12 million users.
This figure came to light alongside the news of Microsoft’s Q4 earnings failing to meet investor expectations, which preceded a 1% drop in its share price.
Nevertheless, Microsoft Teams has excelled this quarter, powering revenue, subscription, and seat growth in Microsoft 365.
Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, said: “In this economic environment, every organization is looking to support employee flexibility and improve productivity.
“Hybrid work is now just work, and it’s imperative that organizations reconnect and re-engage the work force at home and office and everywhere in between.
“To do this companies need a digital fabric that connects employees as well as customers and partners wherever and whenever they work while reducing cost and complexity. We’re all in on Teams.”
Microsoft has added over 450 capabilities to aid effective collaboration for knowledge and frontline workers, many of which are on Teams. A slew of new Teams features was announced at Microsoft Inspire 2022. A new digital contact centre platform powered by Teams was also unveiled this year at the Microsoft Inspire conference.
8×8 Aims to 10X Teams Users in Two Years
8×8 revealed its plans on its 2023 Q1 earnings call to 10X its Microsoft Teams user number over the next two years.
The company’s Voice for Teams direct routing solution has already exceeded 200,000 users, which it says is one of the quickest user assimilations in its history.
8×8 recently launched its Elevate Microsoft partner program and an XT edition of Voice for Teams.
The CEO of 8×8, David Sipes, shared the company’s ambitions for its Teams user base: “On Microsoft Teams, there is a platform approach to enable telephony into Microsoft Teams, both through direct connect and operator connect in addition to calling plans.
“We really see direct connect and operator connect as the big opportunities. We are a top player in direct connect, and we have added over a couple of hundred thousand users there.
“We see that as a big opportunity to get — make that even significantly larger. That’s why we launched the Elevate program focused on Microsoft Partners and our XT edition that will fit nicely into the Teams’ offering.
“I’d like to see us 10x those users over the next couple of years.”
XT combines direct routing technology, Azure-based managed Session Border Control as a Service (SBCaaS), nationwide calling, domestic direct inward dialling (DID), secure voice, and HD audio.
NUWAVE and Dubber Partner for Microsoft Teams Calling
NUWAVE and Dubber have formed a partnership which sees Dubber featured on NUWAVE’s iPILOT Platform for Microsoft Teams Calling.
Dubber’s voice data services and Unified Conversational Recording (UCR) will be added as a standard optional feature on iPILOT.
The partnership will allow easy provisioning access to Dubber’s technology at no extra cost for all NUWAVE customers from August 1.
Steve McGovern, CEO of Dubber, said:
“NUWAVE is an outstanding partner that has ‘cracked the code’ with Microsoft Teams Voice services.
“They attack and remove complexity at every level, making it simple and easy for service providers and enterprises through iPILOT to quickly get the most out of their Microsoft Teams environments.
“They are an ideal partner for Dubber as we both work to enhance customer value and revenue for service providers in their Teams deployments.
“We are seeing continued momentum for our Foundation Partner model in which Dubber’s unified conversational recording platform is embedded as standard, providing immediate and accretive revenue to both ourselves and our partners.”
Using Dubber’s conversational recording and AI solutions, NUWAVE’s partners can find important information and insights from their voice and video call conversations.
SIPPIO Claims World First with Zoom and Teams Voice
SIPPIO claims it has become the first calling provider to enable cloud voice in both Teams and Zoom from the same unified platform.
The voice enablement platform, SIPPIO, recently signed accelerator program agreements with Microsoft and Zoom, providing PSTN calling.
SIPPIO can enable carriers in 74 countries to utilise the Provider Exchange and Operator Connect, allowing their customers to use familiar collaboration applications and telephony services from Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
Dawn-Marie Elder, COO and General Manager at SIPPIO, said: “The future of voice is collaboration.
“More and more businesses are unifying their communication channels to make it easier for their people to stay connected.
“Carriers can see the market opportunities but have become disenchanted by the uphill battle to get started.
“SIPPIO has solved the problem – instead of months-long processes, we can onboard our carriers in a matter of days; and we’re especially proud to be the first and only platform to be able to do this seamlessly across Microsoft Teams and Zoom Phone ecosystems.”
SIPPIO provides carriers with the tools to manage and automate their services, including quotes, sales, activations, and migrations.
