Avaya active in IT Consumerization in India

Arun Shetty
Avaya Aura Sales & Consulting 
Avaya India

What are the key trends pertaining to consumerization of technology?

The proliferation of devices - laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. along with new sources of information and communication such as Social Networking, presence and other forms of collaboration create an opportunity to deliver more Organizational and Contextual-based solutions. Today, users want to communicate with devices of their choice and need access anytime and from anywhere. Real-time communications is the foundation for Unified Communications (UC).

Consumerization of IT is happening as adoption of mobile technologies and enterprise applications is moving forward because the trend provides companies with a strong opportunity to improve efficiency, productivity, and profit. It has reached a new level with people bringing their own tablets and smartphones to work. The consumerization of Business Intelligence (BI), and the resultant increase in user-adoption is set to deliver organizations better BI and RoI.

Social Networking is changing the way enterprises are working today. One of the most interesting trends in UC is integrating the communication networks of enterprise to Social Networking. Avaya's vision for "People-Centric Communications" calls for a new level of synergy between people, the collaborative real-time applications that they use, and the underlying, enabling Network. The goal is to deliver a consistent enterprise-class experience, one that supports context-aware collaboration that is always-on. The new era of business communications that give employees intuitive control over voice, video, presence, IM and social media in multi-vendor, multimodal environments. The result is a new user experience that is far more powerful than anything you see in the enterprise today. 

What are you doing towards unification of communication platforms?

Increasingly, an organization's ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with a broad range of interested parties is becoming a key business differentiator. Productivity can suffer due to the difficulties associated with contacting people via multiple communication channels and the inability of existing infrastructure to effectively encourage and facilitate collaborative working. With a unified approach to communications and collaboration organizations become better equipped to respond to the challenges and demands of today's global economy and increasing customer expectations.  

Avaya announced a new portfolio of real-time enterprise video collaboration products and services that focus on the end-user experience. These innovative, fit-for-purpose solutions are highlighted by the Avaya Flare Experience, a groundbreaking, next-generation user experience that delivers unique collaboration capabilities across video, voice and text. 

The Flare Experience, which runs on the Android OS, offers an on-screen central dashboard that highlights active or in-progress communications. The Flare Experience is available initially on the new tablet-format Avaya Desktop Video Device. This features a touch and swipe user interface that allows workers to communicate in any mode, check messages, schedule meetings and appointments, and receive alerts or reminders. It uses Drag-and-drop voice and video calling and conferencing, and allows users to separate from a call to engage in side conversations - either through voice, email or IM - without interrupting the original call. A virtual “Rolodex” allows users to scan their corporate and personal lists of contacts - including those from social networks - and find out whether a person is available and how he/she prefers to communicate and initiate a connection.

How do you see the Indian market?

We see a strong increase in the adoption of UC and collaboration (UC&C) technologies in the years ahead. Forecasts across the APAC region show mid to high single-digit growth in most countries, and India is at the forefront of that growth. We have seen a strong rebound in spending across APAC, especially led by the Financial Services and Insurance (FSI) sector. In India, enterprises across segments like IT/ITeS have also been early adopters of Unified Communication. 

A recent analysis by Frost & Sullivan of the Asia-Pacific UC market found earned revenues of $4.03 billion in 2007, with estimates to reach $8.17 billion by the end of 2014, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.6 per cent (2007-2014).

Do you feel that price-sensitivity hinders technology adoption in India still? 

With enterprises looking for ways to enhance productivity, strengthen customer service and save money, demand for unified communications has grown considerably last year. Like many other sectors of the economy, the market for UC in 2009 was severely impacted by the global economic downturn, but we have seen a strong recovery in 2010.

Some significant advances in 2010 have enabled us to take UC solutions to the next level, delivering true collaboration capabilities, and really delivering on the promise of UC. Customers are increasingly embracing a more people-centric approach to collaboration, which places the user at the centre of interactions and makes the technology work for the individual. This means providing a seamless user interface that is independent of device, mode of communication and even underlying architecture. At Avaya, we have delivered a stream of innovations in 2010 which means that users have an intuitive, fun-to-use interface which combines access to email, voice, video, IM, social networking and the Internet with the ability to combine directories into a single-dial plan. By leveraging presence, preferences and historical context, users can not only determine how best to contact colleagues or customers, but also when best to do so, and details of their previous discussions or contacts - and all launched as simply as clicking a button or swiping a screen. We call this the Avaya Flare experience - and it's really got business users buzzing.

What are Avaya India's plans for 12 months down the line?

At Avaya, we are committed to provide our products right from Avaya Aura Unified Communications which brings all of a company's communications and collaborative capabilities together. It improves the ecosystem's manageability and effectiveness and makes the enterprise more responsive and agile. UC enables enterprises to achieve their full potential and ultimately gain an advantage over the competition.

Syeda Beenish
beenish@varindia.com