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Avaya unveils new platform for business communications

Regina Pazvakavambwa
By Regina Pazvakavambwa, ITWeb portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 19 Oct 2016
As long as businesses struggle to break the barriers of siloed interactions, UC experience will unfortunately remain out of reach, says Avaya.
As long as businesses struggle to break the barriers of siloed interactions, UC experience will unfortunately remain out of reach, says Avaya.

Avaya has introduced a platform for business communications that it says delivers streamlined, mobile-first communications within the application.

According to the company, vendors today still struggle to fully merge all the communication application infrastructure and cloud-based services into a single platform. "Avaya Equinox enables unified communication within the applications and browsers on the devices people use every day."

The platform liberates employees and IT departments from disjointed communications that hinder productivity, says Avaya. Workers can quickly see all scheduled meetings, messaging updates, and communications history in one place and take immediate action with a single touch, it adds.

Gary E Barnett, senior vice president and general manager for Avaya Engagement Solutions, says the vision for unified communications (UC) has always been a streamlined, user and IT-friendly experience that enables work to proceed without disruption.

Integrating the wide variety of forms and methods of communication into a single flow has been an unmet challenge - until now, he explains.

Gartner projected the global UC market to increase from $40.9 billion in 2014 to $42.4 billion by 2019 as a result of growing demand for cloud-based services and digital transformation.

It says for vendors, the stakes in the enterprise unified communications market are exceedingly high, because the market is mature and overall growth has slowed.

As a result, vendors that do not perform well will experience negative growth and revenue losses, leading them to exit the market, it says.

Four UC solution characteristics - user experience, mobility, interoperability and broad solution appeal will have an important effect on the success of a unified communications product and the satisfaction of its users, it notes.

As long as businesses struggle to break the barriers of siloed interactions, UC experience will unfortunately remain out of reach, says Laura Bassett, director of marketing, Customer and Team Engagement Solutions at Avaya, in a blog.

Even businesses that support advanced communications may not have the ability to make those capabilities malleable enough to adapt to (or amplify) each individual user experience, she adds.

A stronger solution is necessary to support organisations as they work to digitise and embrace today's rapid pace of innovation, Bassett elaborates.

"After all, the goal is to maximise productivity by driving the individual user experience based on specific preferences and desired business outcomes. In other words, allowing employees to get work done where they want, when they want and, most importantly, in a way that works best for them based on their ever-changing circumstances and needs."

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