Voice and data communications vendor Avaya recently announced a range of new products as part of its Enterprise Class Internet Protocol Solutions (ECLIPS). These solutions promise to make it easier for businesses to cost-effectively use IP telephony.
<B>Are IP-telephony solutions affordable to SMEs in Africa?</B>
"Avaya has a whole range of solutions catering to the need of small, medium and large enterprises, public institutions and service providers - they are suitable for an office with two people up to an office with 30 000 people. We fully understand the issue of affordability and we package products which meet needs of a particular marketplace.
"In three to four months from now we`ll be launching IP Office, a 100% converged IP telephony product with built-in firewall and Internet access, catering for a two-people office up to a 150-180 people office.
"IP Office is a cost-effective solution tailor-made for SMEs across the world," says Srivastava.
Following these announcements, Anil Srivastava, VP of channel management for Avaya Europe, Middle East and Africa, outlined Avaya`s IP convergence and CRM strategy to key partners in SA.
Srivastava says the company`s recent restructure into four business units was based on four focus areas: software and communication applications, infrastructure solutions based on IP-telephony (also called convergence), services and structured cabling systems.
Admitting that the market hype around CRM has resulted in many misconceptions, Srivastava says it`s important to ensure "that people are not using CRM in a broader sense than it`s necessary".
[VIDEO]"CRM is a broad framework for the business of dealing with customers, and it can include the whole organisation. But when you speak about technology, Avaya excels in four areas around customer contact optimisation: contact management, interaction management, commitment management and business intelligence."
When it comes to convergence, another broad and often misunderstood term, Srivastava explains Avaya`s focus: "Avaya defines convergence as business convergence as opposed to convergence of technology. The business convergence we are focused on is much broader than just voice and data integration."
[VIDEO]While both the IP telephony and CRM markets are quite competitive, Srivastava says Avaya has an edge in the range and scale of its solutions.
"Avaya is the only company, we believe, in the marketplace today which has a complete infrastructure solution -- based on legacy circuit switch and on IP switch -- as well as applications. We have products and solutions being delivered today, not just talked about; we have a complete infrastructure solution for small to very large enterprises, and applications which meet business needs today."
Broadening market focus
[VIDEO]Alain Schram, Avaya`s MD for SA, says the new products will see Avaya SA move beyond its traditional customer base, which has been mostly in the financial and healthcare sectors.
"Historically, we have been more successful in the high end of the market, with our high-end contact centres. But Africa is still an SME market to a large extent. The new product ranges will definitely allow us to broaden our customer base and bring more cost-effective solutions to the lower-end of the market."
Schram says the demise of Siltek was initially a serious knock as Siltek was Avaya`s only distributor in SA, but adds that the change breathed new life into the business.
"Siltek going down had a huge impact on us at the time. We had to re-model the channel quite quickly. But we`ve been able to sign up our Gold Partners [Dimension Data and Spescom] directly and it`s brought our business relationships much closer and our business has grown since that occurrence."
As to the second national telecommunications operator, Schram believes it will bring more opportunity. "It makes the market more competitive. We are going to see more creativity, especially in the low-end of the market."
Africa`s opportunity
[VIDEO]Srivastava doesn`t regard SA`s telecommunications policy as an obstacle to IP telephony adoption. "I don`t think [telecoms regulation] is an obstacle - it`s just a cycle of development in Africa. There is work in progress, I can see discussion happening and the South African regulatory framework is beginning to allow things to happen." He says Avaya believes that Africa has a huge opportunity to fast track the adoption of new technologies.
"Africa has an opportunity like no other continent. It can leap-frog other continents as it does not need to worry about legacy installations of voice and data networks, and complexity of different frameworks, rules, taxation. Africa can build a convergence-ready framework from top down," says Srivastava.
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