Avaya is looking for a new Aussie managing director, with current local chief Tim Gentry leaving after spearheading Avaya's channel push in Australia.
Gentry leaves next week for the US where he will take up a senior role in Avaya's corporate team, while current COO Luke Power will step into the role of interim managing director.
The company is now looking inside and outside the company for a new local managing director.
Gentry joined the local business in June 2012 when he replaced Rob Wells, who became Workday's Australian & New Zealand managing director.
Gentry's departure follows a significant increase in the company's local channel activities under his tenure.
"The last two years I've been very vocal about Avaya moving to a channel ecosystem," he said. "We've gone from 65 percent of our business through channel to 100 percent of over the last three quarters going through channel."
Last year Avaya on-boarded more than 85 new partners locally who are certified to sell Avaya and who are transacting, Gentry said. He pointed to Telstra's acquisition of NSC Group as an example of the success of some partners.
Part of Avaya's push to become a "channel friendly company", as Gentry puts it, involved operational improvements resulting in faster turnaround times for quotes.
He said he expects Avaya will be looking to take on more channel partners in Australia this year.
"As other companies are taking a more direct approach, or frankly not enabling the partner base, we have a lot more partners coming to us and we will be on-boarding additional ones because the market can bare it. And frankly our product is growing at a rate that we need the extension," he said.
Avaya grew by 48 percent in the midmarket last year, Gentry said. This week Avaya announced a new IP Office Contact Center for customer service via email, voice and chat for businesses with between five and 100 staff.
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