Channel to Avaya: Get the execution right

Australian and New Zealand resellers have urged networking vendor Avaya to work hard to deliver on the roadmap presented at the first partner conference since the Nortel acquisition.

While the vendor intends to continue selling Nortel products, Nortel resellers were keen to know how they could start training staff on Avaya products.

"It was good to get clarity of strategy but now we need clarity of strategy for sales people and engineers," said Steve Mills, general manager of national corporate sales at Gen-i, the New Zealand systems integrator. "We have a large install base of Nortel and in the BC and BCM space. And although that's not End Of Life until 2012, our competitors are going to be selling [Avaya] Aura", which will eventually replace BCM.

Gen-i's customers will be asking why they should buy Nortel products instead of Avaya, said Mills. "It's a question I would ask too."

Other resellers were concerned about the need for stability.

"I think Jeremy Butt (Avaya's vice president of worldwide channels) nailed it yesterday with consistency and predictability," said Brett Parsons, director of Avaya reseller NSC.

Parsons said there had been some change in the regional team with people leaving after 12 months, and it was "a bit of an effort" to keep forging new relationships with the vendor.

"I thought the vision was clearly presented but the test will be time and making it reality," said Parsons.

Craig Neill, managing director of NSC, was "actually quite taken by how it's all coming together with the roadmap.

"I think the biggest challenge for us will be communicating it to our customers," he said. 

Neill  said his company would need to hold events, get some press and do a lot of talking to customers to get across the "great story".

He said Avaya had some "knockout punches" against Cisco.

"The whole SIP enabled story is really strong against Cisco," said Neill. Other strong elements were the focus on presence and Avaya's CTI middleware.

Avaya also has work to do in promoting its brand.

"In Australia, the number one thing that is missing is market awareness," said George Minucos, managing director of Reliance Communications. He added that outside the contact centre market Avaya "isn't very well known", particularly in comparison to its competitor Cisco.

Minucos said that a Nortel employee in Australia who had been retained by Avaya post-acquisition told him: "When I tell people I'm from Avaya they don't have a clue what I'm talking about."

However, Minucos said the conference had been "refreshing". "They know where they're going," he said.

Tony Jayne, CEO of New Zealand reseller Agile, said simplification of the product roadmap was "the right way to go.

"I think they have got it right in terms of strategy. The product roadmap will have the biggest difference" in reducing complexity of solutions for customers, said Jayne, who has been selling Avaya since 1993. In contrast, 10 years ago Avaya had been selling a "bunch of different stuff" that were not connected.

In 2004, Avaya acquired the German company Tenovis and had "chucked out all their products" and replaced them with the whole Avaya line-up. This time "they have looked at the whole product set" and taken the best products from Nortel and its own product line.

Jayne added that the improved user interfaces and contact centre integration would bring big productivity gains to business.

Gerald Lipman, manager of communication solutions at Fredon Industries, said he had been selling Avaya for 10 years and that this year was "the most impressive".

"I'm feeling quite optimistic that they will deliver. I don't think the roadmap is too ambitious; it was very well received locally and globally. They've got fantastic SMB product."

However, Lipman said Avaya's enterprise resellers would struggle to sell against Cisco.

"The problem is going to be in the enterprise because Cisco owns the network," he said.

Sholto travelled to the Avaya's Asia Pacific Partner Conference in Beijing as a guest of Avaya.