Avaya, Bharti ink IT outsourcing deal

The Economic Times reports.

Avaya will become Bharti's second partner after IBM, and both companies declined to reveal the contract value.

Under this five-year deal, Avaya will operate and manage the IT requirements of all Bharti Airtel's business processing outsourcing (BPO) partners across 80 locations.

Reuters quotes Ed Nalbandian, head of Avaya's managed services and contact centre solutions, as saying: "It is the largest deal we have ever done."

Previously, the largest deal Avaya had in the global contact centre space was $75 million with a manufacturing company.

Avaya's technology will support over a billion calls a year and include video and social media capabilities in the call centres, Nalbandian added.

Nalbandian said Airtel had looked at several vendors, including Cisco.

After five years, Airtel has the option to choose a new vendor, but according to Nalbandian, the Indian company has indicated it will likely renew its contract with Avaya.