Formation, a company dedicated to delivering state-of-the-art UC and managed technology services to growing companies, recently launched their Avaya-focused event, the “Avaya Cloud Workshop.” The event was designed for people who were either actively reviewing their cloud strategy, or just starting in the journey to the cloud, and it covered everything attendees need to know about moving to a new area of the market, whilst also exploring business transformation opportunities.
With senior members of the Avaya team on hand, Formation introduced case studies and solutions intended to inspire and guide their customers on the path to an easier and more effective digital transformation strategy.
I caught up with Mike Wheadon, the Sales Director of Formation, and Carl Hardie, Business Development Director, to find out more about the event and the overall experience that Formation had to offer their clients.
What Drives People to Your Events?
Formation runs similar, transformative events around three times per year, which gives them enough time to keep their attendees and their content fresh. Carl told me: “We’ve covered everything from migrating voice into the cloud to smart working, workplace optimisation, digital transformation and more. This time, we decided to condense the feedback we’ve taken from previous events and deliver something that captures everyone’s attention.”
The Avaya event introduces attendees to the potential of UCaaS, and the possibilities that come with moving to the cloud. As Avaya’s fastest-growing International cloud partner, Formation can provide customers with useful insights into how to set up their digital transformation campaigns. Mike told me, “There are two parts to the event. The first was on migrating your estate to the cloud, which is something that people need to know about. The second part was about smart working and unshackling workers from the desktop.”
Formation believes that their attendees are looking for two things: a map to the cloud that they can use to take their business strategies to the next level, and an insight into the ways that they can use the latest disruptive technology to transform the workplace. “Going to the same noisy desk every day to get work done isn’t the best option anymore. You need to give your staff the freedom to roam.”
Were There Any Interesting Takeaways from the Event?
I was interested to find out which parts of the Avaya cloud event that attendees were most interested in. Carl told me that although the whole experience went down well with attendees, he found that a large portion of the people in the room was there to learn. “Many of the people who came to the conference were existing Avaya customers that weren’t fully educated on what Avaya could offer with the cloud. They certainly didn’t know about any cloud migration programs out there.”
It wasn’t just the cloud migration piece that attendees were keen to learn about either. Carl noted that people didn’t know what kind of cloud environment they could create for themselves and their employees. “We found that the most engagement came during the second half of the event when we were talking about things like customer experience and engagement.”
Formation covered everything from making automated workflows, to how people could set up more efficient ways of completing tasks in their office. They found that this conversation led to a lot of questions and interesting discussions with their attendees, who wanted to discover how to solve specific problems in their business environment. “We weren’t just talking about experience and engagement, we were demonstrating the possibilities to the audience, and that’s what made people excited.”
Carl noted that in the past, a lot of people assumed that they needed a massive amount of investment to set up something significant with engagement and experience. However, the Formation event proved that even mid-market market and smaller companies could unlock the latest systems in the communication and CX markets.
The Disruptive Comms Provider
Ultimately, Formation is quite a disruptive entity in the communication market.. There are plenty of resellers out there who just do the job, but they’re not system integrators. Formation is delivering unique workflows and integration to the situation, which helps them to stand out.
Mike told me that during the event, the company covered a case study that discussed the needs of a charity that wanted to be able to inform sponsors when an animal was rehomed. “We invited them to set up an automated workflow with Avaya Breeze which automatically triggered texts to be sent to a sponsor when the animal was rehomed. The text also prompted the person to take additional action by renewing their sponsorship with a different animal. A really simple example, but one that can make a big difference to this business”
According to Mike, Formation’s events aren’t just about digitally transforming a business or introducing people to the latest technology from Avaya; they’re about making real changes in the areas that the boards are talking about, such as customer experience, renewed loyalty, and employee engagement.
What’s Next for Formation?
While not everyone in the communication market is ready to embrace the latest disruptive technology for their systems, Formation believes that a lot of the roadblocks in the industry come from a lack of education and environment. The Formation events are designed to provide the guidance that people need to take their business to the next level.
Mike told me that the latest event went very well and sparked a lot of engagement from the audience. “I think this has given us a launching pad to focus on things like digital transformation going forward. We know we can give customers a lot of value around that. Next year, we’ll be continuing to focus on things like customer experience, and next-level technology like AI and chatbots“.
Though the next event hasn’t been announced yet, Formation predicts that they will be releasing some data around January for a conference set in April.
