An Avaya exec revealed that the company is preparing customers for the metaverse.
Although Avaya is not moving its contact centres into the metaverse, it is getting them ready for end-customers who may wish to communicate within the metaverse.
Nidal Abou-Ltaif, President of Avaya International, who spoke with UC Today’s David Dungay at Gitex 2022 in Dubai, emphasised the theme of “innovation without disruption”, which the company has been working towards under the leadership of its new CEO and President of Avaya, Alan Masarek.
Abou-Ltaif believes bridging its customers to the metaverse fits precisely into this theme. He explains: “We are going into the metaverse world making sure we elevate our customer to the future, linking the current to the future and taking care of our customers. We are seeing a lot of excitement.
“Almost every government department, every bank has an Avaya contact centre or something from Avaya. We went back to the theme of ‘innovation without disruption’ and came up with this innovation.
“We are not in the metaverse world, but we are preparing our customers to connect to the metaverse world.”
“We will be allowing our customers to send a Whatsapp message or link to callers and go into the metaverse world, while agents can still be on standby to communicate and contact [via normal channels].
Abou-Ltaif also gave insight into its latest partnership news, including a new strategic partnership it has formed with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. They will become a global reseller of Avaya’s CCaaS solution.
In the last year, he said they had updated a lot of their APIs where they allow their customers to use their spaces as contact centres.
The Avaya exec also listed customers from various sectors, like emergency services, as well as countries, including India, the UK, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Abou-Ltaif spoke further about its metaverse plans: “What we are showing on the stand is any individual wants to come and invest in Dubai they can do all work on the metaverse world because all the departments already have their addresses on the metaverse world.
“What we did is buy land in the metaverse world so we can connect our customers to it.
“We are moving them to the future. You don’t need to build a metaverse contact solution – maybe one day – but for now, we are bridging contact centres to the future.”
Avaya has been in financial trouble recently, with many asking ‘can Avaya survive a second time?‘
The company recently announced its Q3 revenues have sunk by 20 per cent year-over-year. Its share price fell by 37.5% on the same day.
Alan Masarek began as CEO of Avaya on August 1st, replacing Jim Chirico, who departed abruptly amid the company’s financial crisis.
