‘Transformation’ seemed to be the theme of this year’s Avaya ENGAGE, and that was established on day one when Avaya CEO, Jim Chirico, took to the stage at the UC giant’s keynote address here in Arizona. Chirico hit the ground running with principal metrics on the company’s progress since filing chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016. He started off by telling the room of 3,000 attendees, that Avaya remains on a mission to become a profitable business.
Further addressing the elephant in the room, Chirico shared up-to-date figures on Avaya’s outstanding debt, which today, sits at over three billion USD. Chirico said, to date, the unified communications pioneer’s reclaimed more than 12 million of its shares, adding he remains confident Avaya will buy back 500 million dollars in Avaya shares by the end of 2020.
Shifting gears to some of the more pragmatic goings-on Avaya’s undertaken in recent years, Chirico maintained Avaya added over 6,000 new customers in 2019. “We also led over 500 competitive displacements against the likes of Mitel, 8×8, and Five9, and we’re just getting started.”
Partners in Europe and the UK Gear Up for Avaya UCaaS
During ENGAGE 2020, I sat down with Nidal Abou Ltaif, Senior Vice President, Avaya International Sales. He opened up about European and UK-based partners getting ready for Avaya Cloud Office. He shared with UC Today, “European and UK-based partners are “Enthusiastic about ACO.” According to him, partners are already implementing their strategies for the UCaaS solution backed by RingCentral.
Ltaif did add, at the time of the announcement, partners expressed they were skeptical about the deal, “Avaya eventually won them over when we assured partners they’d soon have a strong multi-tenant UCaaS solution, which they’d asked for.” he continued.
For now, Avaya’s focus remains on training partners as to how to use and deploy Avaya Cloud Office, he told me. I did press him on one issue I’d previously failed to receive an answer on until that moment. Have partners submitted their commitment to staying by Avaya’s side during this time of transition in writing? He said: “Yes, we’ve received several written commitments from partners after negotiations” with him and other chief Avaya leadership, including the company’s CEO, who personally met with partners in Europe and the UK.
A New Cloud Roadmap
With a new cloud strategy in place, Chirico said Avaya’s path to the cloud, currently in development for its over 100 million customers, will be generally available in March 2020. Powered by RingCentral technology, Avaya Cloud Office will be branded with Avaya’s branding. And the CCaaS solution was on display at this year’s event to give partners a glimpse.
Avaya’s leader has been at the helm since 2017 and has since led the company into a period of digital transformation. The next logical step after UCaaS, CCaaS, Chirico told reporters, adding:
“We’ll bring a CCaaS platform to market in 2020 after the launch of our UCaaS solution”
On the second and final day of ENGAGE, he told attendees, Avaya’s increased spending on research and development as well as strengthened its efforts in the cloud space, mostly led by the nearly $500 million partnership with RingCentral. The deal includes a $125 million investment with three percent redeemable preferred equity, convertible at $16 per share. RingCentral even received a hefty advance of $375 million in stock for future payments and licensing rights, as we reported back in November 2019.
There have also been vast product and service updates from the brand some previously assumed would become lost in the shuffle of such a dynamic cloud ecosystem. It has been a long road since the dark days of chapter 11 bankruptcy, yet in 2020, the prospect of Avaya looks bright.
With investor confidence flying high, rising stocks, and riding the company’s recent wave of innovation, Avaya made several other impactful decisions that should influence the future of the brand for the better. So let’s dive into everything you missed at this year’s unified communications conference.
Partnerships, Collaboration, & Contact Center Take Center Stage
Avaya flexed its mussels on the contact center front, launching a set of distinct functionalities it said are designed to route customers to the perfect agent for their query. Avaya’s new AI Routing solution is powered by a partnership with Afiniti AiRo and uses artificial intelligence to do the job.
Avaya also announced updates to its cloud meeting and team collaboration platform Spaces. The offering extends messaging, meetings, and task management from a browser environment or mobile device. At ENGAGE, Avaya gave the collaboration platform new superpowers, adding enhancements to “Spaces.”
The offering is now available in over 60 countries and extends the use of file sharing, HD video meetings for up to 500 participants with recording, and content sharing features. It will also connect with Avaya IX Collab Unit CU360 huddle and SIP-based video devices.
Avaya said it would include integrations with Google, Slack, Microsoft Office 365, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. When it comes to administration, the company said in a statement, its Aura and Avaya IP Office users “Now enjoy more seamless management experiences.” Karen Hardy, VP Product Marketing, Avaya, told UC Today in an interview at ENGAGE:
“With the new capabilities of Avaya Spaces, Avaya can meet the expectations of employees and customers who want to engage using a more blended approach to communications across a variety of channels, devices, and touchpoints”
The UC giant also made updates to its AI-powered speech analytics platform that automatically transcribes and analyzes voice conversations in real-time. Avaya even announced it would give agent desktops new functionalities by leveraging customer information from sources such as CRMs. The features should provide agents a consolidated view of the customer journey no matter the medium they use, be it a cloud-based chat, social media, SMS, or email.
In a statement, the company stressed, all of this is now offered with new subscription-based pricing.
This leads me to Avaya IX Subscription, Avaya’s attempt at removing silos surrounding complex payment structures associated with corporate communications. At ENGAGE 2020, Avaya’s CEO said, enterprises can now adopt the latest communication and collaboration tools using their preferred channels and devices through the new subscription program.
Overall, ENGAGE was a success if you consider the fact that Avaya is making vast strides toward modernizing its technology to create a viable option for enterprise comms in an ever-competitive cloud-based world. Is Avaya up to the challenge? We will see how ACO’s rollout goes, but I have feeling it will unlock vast potential for the UC provider.
