With featuring 16 products and solutions launches in 2016, Avaya transitioned into a software and services-led company. Now, company’s entire products mix is available as a software component. In an interview with EC’s Mohd Ujaley, Vishal Agrawal, managing director, Avaya, India and SAARC says, “This change was necessary for transforming customer experience” and this is quite evident from the fact that today software and services account for over 74% of total revenue.
How was the year 2016 for Avaya in India?
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This year has seen Avaya continue its successful transition into a software and services-led company, with 2016 being the most innovative year in Avaya’s history, featuring 16 product and solution launches, many of which were showcased at the recently concluded Avaya ENGAGE. We changed our product mix, made everything available as a software component, and worked towards transforming customer experience. We expanded our innovative product portfolio while driving sales and services growth in both the enterprise and mid-market segments. We have managed the operational aspects of the business while investing for the future, today software & services account for over 74% of total revenue.
What progress did you make last year?
We shifted our focus on re-energising and entering newer segments and have built an excellent portfolio for mid-market reach. In the mid-market, we have spread our wings across India. Our on-premise solution IP Office Contact Center (IPOCC), which we have recently launched, is perfect for small and mid-size businesses. Also, government projects have been an important focus for us, 30% of our product revenue comes from these projects. We launched Emergency Response system in alliance with government of two states, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
We started a DX project with dnata, one of the world’s largest air services providers and a member of Emirates Group to transform its customer Experience. Our Avaya Private Cloud Services (APCS) is helping dnata to create a seamless, personalised experience for its customers and partners.
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What would be the key growth areas for Avaya in 2017?
India is a significant market for us, we see immense opportunity for growth here as India goes through momentous digital change. The Government is playing a major role in driving internet growth in the country through initiatives like ‘Digital India’, ‘Smart City’ and ‘Make in India’. We have an apt model in place and we believe that our growth (in India) will continue to rise. We believe ‘Experience’ is a crucial element in the new business scenario, it is expected that by end of this year, 90 percent of companies will be competing on “Customer Experience”. We can clearly see that customer experience is driving every major business decision for most enterprises, and for good reason. Leading with User Defined Experience in the Digital World is very important & it takes experience creating solutions for enterprise clients across every industry. We aim to achieve that with our current portfolio of solutions.
India is moving to a single emergency number and we have been working at enabling that. We also have a 300-college network modernisation project in Madhya Pradesh that is underway. It is a project with a huge next generation impact with quite a bit of analytics and artificial intelligence built in the solution.
India’s younger generation is adopting new technology much faster, businesses have the potential to use customer intelligence data for revenue generation through multi-channel. That opportunity is growing with many businesses in India leapfrogging to multi-channel customer engagement and we enable those with our software and services solutions.
Avaya is redefining unified communications to be a convenient way to engage, respond, and share. We have expanded our portfolio to address customers’ growing demand for digital transformation, software-based solutions and smart analytics, while offering compelling migration paths for both partners and customers. Also, our new collaboration capabilities enable virtual work groups to share and store more and more information.
How do you plan to focus on emerging technology like Artificial Intelligence in 2017?
With Artificial Intelligence (AI) becoming the new consumer expectation, we are already working with digital disruptors to harness the power of AI to push the boundaries of digital services, and create compelling customer services. Avaya’s R&D team is developing a self-learning “chatbot” solution, capable of holding intelligent conversations with customers, answer queries and resolve customer service issues.
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