I spoke with Avaya International’s Spokesperson for Cloud & Midmarket, Khalid Khan, in an exclusive UC Today interview. He shared the inside scoop regarding why Avaya recently put an end to the popular “Powered by Avaya” IP solution. Khan told me, Avaya listened to customer feedback gathered by partners, and one element stood out. Customers said they sought “Simplified migration to the cloud and wanted to leverage existing investments throughout the trip.”
In response, last year, Avaya and RingCentral announced a new UCaaS partnership that would lead to the creation of an Avaya-branded UCaaS offering called Avaya Cloud Office. “This is why we ended the sale of our “Powered by Avaya IP Office” solutions, used by hosting partners to create a cloud service offering with our IP Office portfolio,” he added.
During our interview, Khan told me, Avaya’s realigned its resources and portfolio to support the success of ‘Avaya Cloud Office’ UCaaS solution powered by RingCentral. The offering, backed by more than $125 million in RingCentral capital, as well as an advance of $375 million for future payments and licensing rights – gives RingCentral six-percent of Avaya’s stock.
With the proper context in mind, Avaya’s most recent move makes sense, because it has earned plenty of buzz as a result of the new RingCentral investment. And many investors are keen to give more if Avaya can deliver on a strong new solution when it is available this quarter.
The Beginning of a New Era at Avaya
Marking the dawn of what it hopes to become a prosperous and more cloud-based tomorrow, the end of the sale of PoweredBy offering will “Apply to almost every region, but only to new system sales,” Khalid said. He added, existing contracted customers will maintain full support for the duration of their contracts and can buy expansion licenses throughout their contracts.
What Can Partners Expect?
Avaya has even shaken up its leadership, announcing in December 2019 it had hired Jon Brinton as VP of North America Channel Sales, a telecoms expert with experience in the cloud industry. Brinton formerly served as President of the Cloud Division at Mitel. It was late last year, he brought his talents to Avaya as its new channel leader.
There are many implications for channel partners – particularly those who have been successful with “Powered By Avaya IP Office.” But Avaya said these trusted partners can move to the new business model “Avaya Cloud Office” with relative ease.
The subscription offering will be accessible to partners who operate in countries without Avaya Cloud Office, and Avaya said it has created a new billing and booking system designed for a self-service experience. Avaya said it has more country rollouts planned for 2020, starting with the USA and Canada, followed by the UK, Australia, then France, the Netherlands, and Ireland.
