Avaya expands channel existence in 2009

CRN: What is new for Avaya this year?

Andy Hurt: Avaya has orchestrated many positive organisational changes in the past 18 months after becoming a private organisation.

These include key leadership changes, the consolidation of our technology portfolio into two main areas - unified communications and contact centre solutions, and a renewed focus on improving our efficiencies both internally and externally.

Most recently, we announced a new channel-centric go-to-market model aimed at increasing our local reach across territories and sectors, including mid-market.

Part of our efforts to improve internal efficiencies stems from the fact that the company has not spent much money on IT.

According to our new leadership team, IT isn't providing nearly as much benefit as one would like at the moment, so we'll be one of the few companies that actually increases our investment in IT over the next couple of years to improve our own processes.

By re-engineering the company it will make it easier for our partners and ultimately, our customers, to do business with us.

We are excited about embracing the new global, channel-centric initiative in Australia, which is aimed at fuelling market penetration for the entire range of our unified communications and contact centre technologies.

We are adopting a two-tier distribution model with the appointment of a new distributor, Distribution Central, and an expanded relationship with Avnet.

As part of the new channel program, we are continuing to grow existing relationships with our BusinessPartner community including NSC, GlobalConnect Australia and Comlinx; the System Integrators - IBM and HP, and service providers - Verizon Business, BT, Optus and Telstra.

Our goal is to deliver the best unified communications and contact centre technologies to enterprises, and our channel business partners will help us meet - and ideally exceed - that goal.

CRN: What does this mean for resellers?

AH: We have just announced that we have a dedicated channel team in Australia to support our new partner engagement model and the entire team is focused on creating a clear, concise vision of what our channel partners can offer to their customers.

As we continue to articulate the benefits of the new channel partner program and our vision to increase the reach of our leading unified communications and contact centre products, we are confident resellers will want to take this journey with us.

CRN: Why now?

AH: We have the right leadership in place, the right model, the right team locally. Plus the market conditions are right.

In 2009 we expect organisations to be focused on consolidation, total cost of ownership and on their own productivity and competitiveness. 

The business-savvy leaders of today are seeing technology as a strategic asset that can be used to drive innovation, reduce costs and promote reinvention.

Our partners are in a unique position to work with customers to demonstrate the business gains around implementing Avaya's unified communications and contact centre tools to drive productivity gains associated with simplified, intuitive communications and collaboration in this challenging economic climate.

CRN: How many resellers does Avaya have onboard and what is this number compared to two
years ago?

AH: Avaya has about 85 BusinessPartners in Australia and our strategy has been to keep that number steady and ensure our partners secure a healthy return from the customers they work with.