Avaya, IBM team up to supply customer care solutions

Avaya Inc and IBM have announced an agreement to develop and provide joint solutions that will enable businesses and service providers to rapidly deploy new communications management, customer relationship management and contact centre solutions.

Under the agreement, IBM Global Services, the world`s largest networking services and systems integration company, will develop consulting and implementation services to complement various Avaya products and services.

Included in the agreement are: unified communication solutions, which enable simplified end-user access to a variety of messages and multimedia from virtually any communications device; customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for customer contact centres; and Web-based e-commerce applications.

As part of the unified communication offer, Avaya also announced an agreement with Lotus to jointly develop a Lotus Notes-compatible version of Unified Messenger, a market-leading application for message management.

The companies will support these offerings through the development of a services practice that includes IBM Global Services and Avaya Professional Services.

In announcing the agreement, Avaya and IBM cited the alliance will help position the companies to be leading providers of applications and services that are forecasted by industry analysts to grow to a combined $22 billion over the next five years. The firms expect to be able to serve more than 90% of the addressable unified messaging market, which according to market research by the Radicati Group, will increase to $8 billion by 2005, up from $498 million in 2000.

The practice for CRM will tap into a growing market for CRM infrastructure and applications that according to industry analyst firm IDC, soared 85% in 2000 to $6.2 billion, and is expected to generate more than $14 billion in revenues by 2005.

Today, the two companies combined mutually serve more than 200 large enterprises and service providers through existing relationships. The companies will offer additional services to these current clients through these new practices, in addition to jointly seeking new business.

"Two of the biggest challenges for enterprises in today`s economy are increasing productivity and retaining customers," said Don Peterson, president and CEO, Avaya. "Avaya`s technology enables businesses to excel in today`s environment, which requires 24-hour-a-day access for commerce, customer support and service. As a result of this agreement, we can deliver the solutions businesses need quickly and efficiently through the world-class consulting and integration capabilities of IBM."

Frank Broderick, IBM`s vice president for networking services, added: "Companies around the world require a services partner who can help them reduce their deployment risks and decrease their time to market in implementing next-generation communications solutions. Under this agreement, IBM Global Services is better positioned to help customers that choose Avaya`s solutions realise the benefits of leading-edge technology by designing, implementing and deploying these solutions, while reducing their costs."

Avaya and IBM will focus on bringing the following services and solutions to market:

* Unified Communication Solutions - IBM Global Services is developing a services practice to sell and support Avaya`s unified communication solutions - a category of applications that streamlines information and contact management for mobile and remote end-users. This practice will focus on Avaya`s market-leading Unified Messenger application, which enables a company`s employees to manage voice mail, e-mail and fax communications. Users - anywhere and at any time - can access, respond to and manage all of their messages from personal computers, wired telephones, wireless phones, handheld devices or the Internet, regardless of the medium of the original messages. For example, a user can choose to listen to e-mails from a cellphone, or instead retrieve voice mails from their laptop computer.

* For the IT manager, Unified Messenger provides a solution that features a single message store, directory, network and administration, making it simpler to administer and less expensive to support. According to a study by the Radicati Group, Unified Messenger reduced the cost of ownership by 70%. It is also shown in the same study to be an effective time-management tool for end-users, providing on average, more than a half-hour per day of increased productivity.

* Avaya`s agreement to work with Lotus in jointly developing a Lotus Notes-compatible version of Unified Messenger will make the industry-leading unified messaging platform available for large-scale implementations in a Lotus Notes/Domino environment. It also provides Avaya access to Lotus` base of more than 85 million Notes users worldwide.

* Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - IBM Global Services is creating a services practice, providing consulting, design and implementation services that will complement Avaya`s customer relationship management solutions. According to market research by Gartner, Avaya is the world leader in the development of call centre solutions. It also provides an industry-leading contact centre solution. With Avaya`s contact centre solutions and their mutual CRM application partners, Avaya and IBM plan to deliver a complete customer relationship management solution across multiple channels that includes voice, e-mail, Web chat, Web self-service and fax. This solution can help companies improve productivity, while increasing customer intimacy, retention, and satisfaction. Additionally, Avaya`s business process management and business analysis solutions will help companies keep their customer service commitments by managing and monitoring activities associated with fulfilment of requests, and will help them gather business intelligence needed to understand customer buying patterns and preferences.

* Web-Based Contact and e-Commerce Solutions - Avaya and IBM will offer contact centre solutions to service providers and directly to enterprises that integrate the Web with call centre communications, and an e-commerce solution for buying and selling over the Internet.