Business communications solutions provider, Avaya is focusing on helping partners throughout the African continent grow their regional adoption of the company's video, collaboration and customer care solutions.
The company yesterday hosted its PartnerConnect Conference, in Johannesburg, where Selvin Kristnen, MD of Avaya SA, revealed the company also wants to change people's perception of viewing it solely as a provider of call centre solutions.
"Avaya's focus has changed in the past two to three years," said Kristnen. "This year, most of our focus will be on the mid-market."
Dina El Bana, Avaya's marketing manager for emerging markets, who was also at the event, defined a mid-market company as an organisation with about 1 000 employees in different locations.
"These are businesses with limited budgets but competing for market share with the large enterprises," she explained.
Thus, Kristnen added that the company aims to make use of its channel to tap into the mid-market, especially with its video, collaboration and customer care solutions.
"Globally, 95% of Avaya's business is driven by the channel," he said. "In SA, our partners will allow us to serve our customers even more successfully."
Avaya also recently conducted market research to better understand the use of various forms of communication technologies as well as issues organisations are facing in SA. According to the study, 62% of respondents are using video conferencing as a way to conduct meetings.
It also discovered that, in 40% of organisations, nearly half of the workforce is operating in a mobile environment.
Based on these findings, Avaya says, in 2012, it made a number of strategic acquisitions, grew its mid-market solutions to address SA's burgeoning small and medium-sized enterprise sector, and advanced its applications to address the communications challenges facing the region's private and government sectors.
"For over a decade, Avaya has been empowering its South African channel and customers to address specific, timely business opportunities in the region as companies look for better customer care solutions, move toward cloud adoption, and increase collaboration across regional and international offices - all of these initiatives create significant growth platforms for Avaya's partners in the region," says Kristnen.
"Whether in developing expertise for specific industries or implementing new solutions such as video collaboration and social media integration, Avaya is ensuring that its partners have the training, skills and tools needed to address these opportunities."
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