On Returning Avaya to Glory
There were two sets of discussion last week about Avaya. One was the various interpretations related to its 8-K filing. The other discussions were related to the company’s transformation strategy after a briefing with industry analysts. I don’t have a…
Thoughts on Avaya Engage 21
It’s all about experiences. That was the theme of Avaya Engage #ExperiencesThatMatter. I attended the Avaya Engage conference this month. This event is part user group (IAUG) and part Avaya Expo event. The last one I attended was in January…
Quick Thoughts on RingCentral and Mitel
It is rare when industry news is both surprising and predictable at the same time. After markets closed yesterday, RingCentral and Mitel announced a new partnership. On the surface it looks similar to previous RingCentral partnerships with Avaya, Atos, and…
TalkingHeadz Bonus Podcast on Avaya OneCloud
CPaaS is a complex topic, and each CPaaS offer is designed and optimized for different types of users. This podcast is a great way to learn more about Avaya’s vision with OneCloud CPaaS. Including a great description of what it…
A Few Thoughts on Experiences That Matter
Here’s a few TalkingPointz from Avaya’s Experiences That Matter event today. Spaces is the current epicenter of innovation at Avaya. Spaces is both a CPaaS and Workstream Collaboration solution (meetings and messaging). It was originally introduced as Zang. There’s been…
TalkingHeadz with Avaya’s Anthony Bartolo
Anthony is driving product leadership at Avaya, and relies on outcome focused, customer journey mapping to do it. There’s a lot of excitement about the work he is doing at Avaya. He brings an interesting background to Avaya with a…
27 Hours in Phoenix (#AvayaEngage 2020)
Avaya Engage took place last week. I was only able to attend for about 27 hours, yet left impressed. I arrived pre-event on Super Sunday. Avaya rented Chase Field, home of the Arizona DiamondBacks Major League Baseball team for its…
Avaya Engage Dubai
Last week I attended Avaya Engage in Dubai. This was the third Engage for me this year (Austin, Singapore, and Dubai). With each event (or interaction or engagement), I leave with something new. This event took place at the Atlantis…
TalkingHeadz Podcast with Nidal of Avaya International
I have known Nidal for about three years, and have come to admire his relationship-first approach to business. To Nidal, the sale of products and technology are a means to his real goal: a satisfied customer. Technology may perpetually change,…
GITEX 2019 (Video)
This is video from the GITEX 2019 show floor (Avaya booth) in Dubai. Unfortunately, I had some trouble with the audio. I am puzzled as to why. I used to have audio problems all the time because Bluetooth is so…
Best Options for Avaya
In last week’s Q3 earnings call, Avaya management disclosed in was in advanced discussions regarding several strategic review options, and that it will update the street within 30 days. I expect the update will come sooner. What might happen? At…
Reflections on Avaya
I recently attended two Avaya International events and wanted to share some thoughts. First the positives: It’s so easy to forget about the rest of the world. A week with Avaya International is a big reminder that there’s a whole…
Mitel and Avaya
The Wall St. Journal is reporting that Mitel has made an offer to acquire Avaya. Maybe. It’s 4AM in Singapore, but I have a few thoughts on this. While it’s not surprising, it’s probably not that realistic either. It’s not…
#CCTR at #EC19
EC is next week. I expect it will be, as usual, the busiest week of the year. Not only are there more comms related announcements this week then any other, but there is no bigger gathering of UC/CC professionals under…
Philonenko Leaves Avaya
Today, Avaya announced its Q1-19 results, and some organizational changes. Briefly, results were mixed with some positive developments on MM cloud revenue and an increase in large deal transactions. Here, I want to focus on Laurent Philonenko’s (Phil-ah-nen-co) departure from…
Avaya Engage 2019
Just got back from Avaya Engage in Austin Texas. The quick summary is Avaya is doing lots of great things, and there’s lots of people (analysts, customers, partners, consultants) very interested in what Avaya is doing. The longer analysis is…
Winners and Losers of 2018
2018 is a 12 month slice of time. In the world of enterprise communications, not much changes in 12 months. Each company has a few releases and a handful of major announcements. While market share remains largely unchanged in 12…
Avaya Investor Day
The new Avaya hosted its first investor analyst conference. If you are not familiar with investor conferences, they are curious things. Investor analysts look at companies from behind green visors. Actually, customers, consultants, industry analysts, and investor analysts all value…
Gitex 2018 (Avaya)
For the second time, Avaya invited me to attend Gitex in Dubai. It’s an amazing conference, and although Avaya is just one of 4000 exhibitors, it’s a big event for Avaya International. Avaya International is a misleading name. The division…
Zia, AI, and Predictive Routing
I love this quote from Benedict Evans: “As soon as we say ‘AI’, it’s as though the black monolith from the beginning of 2001 has appeared, and we all become apes screaming at it and shaking our fists.” AI and…