Tag: Avaya

Avaya and Microsoft Partner to Bring OneCloud CPaaS to Microsoft Azure

Avaya and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership to bring Avaya’s Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) to Azure.

Avaya has built its business around cloud-based communications, making it a natural fit to extend those abilities in Azure, one of the leading cloud computing platforms. The company’s OneCloud CPaaS will be integrated with Microsoft Azure Communication Services, including voice, video chat and SMS. Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365 will also benefit, with OneCloud CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) integrated into both services.

“Avaya and Microsoft are responding to our customers who have asked us to deliver more integrated experiences for Avaya OneCloud Contact Center running in Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365. Together we are providing true integration, spanning not just the contact center application itself but also the underlying communication platforms. Additionally we will be implementing Microsoft’s powerful AI capabilities via Azure Cognitive Services,” said Anthony Bartolo, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Avaya. “Avaya’s market-leading solutions in Cloud Contact Center combined with Microsoft’s presence in cloud collaboration is compelling for existing and new customers alike.”

“The global collaboration with Avaya is an example of how Microsoft, collaborating with other industry leaders, is meeting businesses’ requirements for integrated communications solutions that transform customer and employee experience,” said Scott Van Vliet, Corporate Vice President, Intelligent Conversation and Communications Cloud, Microsoft. “This relationship benefits from the combined strengths of the two companies to connect businesses to their customers via powerful communication experiences across platforms – all with the resiliency, enterprise-grade security and cloud scale of Microsoft Azure.”

August 17, 2021
RingCentral CEO: All of the Legacy Providers Are in Secular Decline

RingCentral founder and CEO Vlad Shmunis spoke with Jim Cramer on CNBC about how they are competing and leading in cloud communications, winning business from huge legacy companies such as Cisco and Avaya:

What RingCentral does is we change ways in which companies communicate, communicate internally with their employees as well as their customers. We have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and two other NFL teams as customers which we can’t announce yet. They’re franchises and they are also companies. They have employees, they have customers who want to reach out to them and communicate with them. What we do at RingCentral is we make all of that very easy and very modern.

What do we do that is different? We enable companies and people to communicate the way that they want to. What does this mean? They can communicate via any mode, any device, whether it be voice, video, texting, or messaging. We have an open platform which means that people can enable our communications within their workflows. None of this was ever available before the cloud came in and we happened to be leading in the cloud.

We’re winning business from Cisco all the time. The number one provider or company that we replace happens to be Cisco followed by Avaya. These would be the two, what we call, legacy ventures. It is a huge field, it’s a hundred-billion-dollar market and we are in the lead. All of the legacy providers are in secular decline.

November 7, 2018
Skype Announces Deal with Avaya

Skype announced that it has entered a new agreement with Avaya, a provider of enterprise communications systems, software, and services. The deal is to deliver real-time communications and collaboration solutions to businesses of all sizes.

Avaya customers in the U.S. will have access to Skype Connect and Skype users can make inbound calls to Avaya customers in the U.S. for free or at a low cost. Calls will be treated with Avaya’s routing, conferencing, messaging, mobility and contact center capabilities, as well as other collaboration services.

“Avaya and Skype have been working along parallel paths to offer, innovative, scalable, low cost, SIP-based communications to our respective markets,” said Alan Baratz, senior vice president, Avaya and president, Avaya Global Communications Solutions. “Now, the two companies will work together, striving to improve collaboration and customer service by federating Avaya and Skype solutions for a common user experience that delivers unique benefits for businesses and their customers who are Skype users.”

“Our relationship with Avaya is expected to expand the footprint for Skype Connect into more enterprises in the U.S. market, while allowing us to help Avaya’s customers benefit from Skype’s cost savings and access to Skype’s global user base,” said David Gurlé, vice president and general manager of Skype for Business. “We believe our integrated solution in the second half of 2011 is expected to offer the benefits of Skype to a growing number of businesses and open up new ways for people to communicate and collaborate.”

It is also rumored that Skype is preparing a deal with Facebook.

September 29, 2010