Avaya Canada announced its plans for next year and company executives said part of Avaya’s strategy moving forward is its continual focus on its channel community and Communications Enabled Business Processes (CEBP).
During an exclusive briefing session held last week at its Markham, Ont. Executive briefing centre, industry media and analysts were given a glimpse on what lies ahead for the multinational intelligent communications vendor.
Mario Belanger, president of Avaya Canada, said next year’s focus will be on the company’s CEBP solutions.
“This is an evolution of our strategy to focus on the advancement of unified communications (UC) and on our contact centre solutions,” Belanger said.
More specifically, CEBP encompasses software, consulting and services that allow for the customization of intelligent communications to help meet the needs of any business as well as increasing efficiency and productivity.
The Avaya solutions and services that make up CEBP include, Event Processor, Communications Process Manager software and Avaya consulting and custom software integration services.
Helping to spread the word and adoption of Avaya’s CEBP solutions, Belanger said, will by Avaya’s Canadian channel ecosystem, which includes distributors, resellers, SIs, service providers and VARs.
“Our business partner community plays a huge role with Avaya,” Belanger said. “We don’t have an abundance of business partners because we try to be very selective on who we have on board with us. We try to be relevant to them and we also want them to be relevant to us.”
What Belanger also notes and perhaps what is the most exciting news for the company moving forward is the company’s recent announcement around free training for partners beginning next year.
“Big news for us is that training will be free for our business partner community,” Belanger said. “We want to enable our partners through training and knowledge so they have an understanding of the true value of UC. When partners understand the value, it makes them more valuable because they’re not just selling a box or a piece of hardware or cable, but instead, they’re selling a complete solution.”
Randy Bergeron, vice-president of enterprise sales at Unity Telecom, a full service communications company and Avaya Canada partner for over two years, says the value in Avaya’s training is that it’s so extensive and comprehensive.
“Training on the industry and its customers, the direction Avaya’s taking and how to marry those together into the integration of a solution to aid in business processes, are things a typical business partner organization would not have the resources to be able to create [on their own],” Bergeron said.
By offering training at no cost, Bergeron also says this will be a great help and resource for his staff since skills can be learned without having to invest in the actual training program itself.
Most importantly and one of the main reasons why training will be free next year, Belanger says, is because training is critical.
“Training is everything,” Belanger said. “You need to continuously train yourself and obtain a certain level of competency whether it’s through webinars or seminars or through a formal face to face session. As things in the industry continue to evolve, we need to do the same with our business partners,” he added.
