Last week, several of our thought leaders traveled to New Orleans to participate in Avaya ENGAGE 2018 (check out our tweets for our real-time updates throughout the conference). Excitement abounded as Avaya unveiled its plans for the future and invited leading innovators, like ConvergeOne, to participate in thought-provoking sessions about the state of business communications. ConvergeOne even walked away with the title of Avaya 2017 Service Partner of the Year.
The major focus of the conference could be summed up in one word: change.Attendees came together to determine how companies can both manage and take advantage of these various forms of change. Our thought leaders noticed three (3) areas that remained at the forefront of these conversations: customer experience, cloud, and the future of Avaya.
| There was quite an excitement about Avaya’s portfolio and what new solutions were coming out. For the contact center portfolio, major topics included digital transformation, analytics, and cloud. For digital transformation, many were talking about BOTS, mobile as a channel, and how our customers can utilize emerging technologies within their enterprise. Analytics is also taking over new meanings as the focus shifts toward how the data presented can be used to change the customers’ experience through automation. | |
| In my discussions, it definitely appears that Avaya is re-focused on the Customer Experience space. Getting rid of the networking business has allowed them to redirect those cycles to their core competency. It was good to see Avaya focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Block Chain Technology. It will be interesting to see how they incorporate this into the solution set and create a differentiator and/or a “leader in the market” persona within the organization that is outwardly recognized. | |
| Customer experience has become the main focus for many companies. Customers don’t care about the infrastructure nearly as much anymore, as they have simple expectations about it. The services should work for them when customers want and need them, and they should meet customers’ criteria of availability, scalability, security, and compliance. With each passing year, these events have more customer experience-associated demos. The trend continued this year, and it’s why our new ConvergeOne Cloud Experience (C1CX) offering has been architected the way that it is – from an experience delivery perspective. |
The cloud is an important topic for all of us. Many of our customers cannot see themselves moving everything to the cloud at one time. There is too much investment made and too much industry knowledge to just do away with what they already have. As a result, many conversations begin with thinking about the promises of the cloud:
These conversations then quickly move to capabilities that clients are comfortable considering under a different structure. The possibilities are so great that at times, the conversation can be overwhelming, which is where an experienced systems integrator, like ConvergeOne, can help. |
|
| We have been hearing for years now that cloud is the future, and we’ve been preparing for it. We launched our C1CX offering on Monday, January 29, and major announcements from Avaya around cloud and the Spoken acquisition followed the next day. The cloud is now. With our C1CX approach, we are extremely well positioned in the marketplace to be the agent of change for the digital transformation that our customers need, want, and demand. |
| Avaya definitely has renewed focus and commitment, starting at the senior leadership level. The message coming from these leaders is very encouraging, as it is focused around agility and listening. | |
| The feeling of emerging from Chapter 11 and going public seemed to create a positive buzz with the attendees. Breeze and, more importantly, Oceana continue to be funded for new environments for our clients. These frameworks allow for both custom and out-of-the-box solutions that are more flexible and holistic than the predecessors of voice-only and multi-channel solutions. | |
| The new Avaya leadership team has committed to ConvergeOne to be inclusive in their roadmap, development, and testing as they progress their cloud portfolio. We're confident in our ability to innovate and execute in our partnership with Avaya. |
Is your business prepared to adapt alongside—and stay ahead of—changes in your industry? Join us on February 15 at 12 p.m. EST to learn more about ConvergeOne Cloud Experience (C1CX), a game-changing approach to enabling business communication capabilities.