media update’s Adam Wakefield spoke to Drew about what Avaya does and how they're helping business move forward. 

Avaya’s business is to help their customers achieve digital transformation and grow through customised solutions and services. Their focus falls specifically on operations, customer satisfaction and driving greater competitive differentiation, which they achieve through open and mobile software platforms, backed by underlying networking infrastructure.

It enables Drew a front row seat into the daily battles their customers face coming to grips with the ever changing online environment, such as cloud computing. According to Drew, it is a game changer.  

Cloud computing has moved the goalposts

Cloud computing has, since its inception, changed the way data is stored. According to Drew, it is “the delivery of hosted services over the Internet. This enables companies to consume IT resources as a utility, like electricity or water, rather than having to build and maintain their own infrastructure”.

Companies can add resources, or scale down on demand, and they only pay for the resources they consume. Having the ability to implement “pay-as-you-go” data storage has a positive impact on a business’s balance sheet, eliminating wasteful expenditure from its IT budget.
 
“In one study, Forrester Research calculated that companies deploying cloud services for unified communications and contact centre could achieve a total ROI of 42% in capital expenses for data centre and telephony costs, improved contact centre productivity, and simplified transformation to new communications technology,” Drew says.

“Along with mobility, social, Big Data and analytics, cloud is one of the key enabling technologies in the transformation to the digital enterprise, which is disrupting all industry segments and markets.”

Cloud computing is compelling legacy players to change their entire business models – from pricing strategy to sales channels to basic technology.

“While previously the most sophisticated solutions were only available to the largest enterprises, these are now available via an Internet connection – meaning companies of all sizes can benefit,” Drew says.

“The utility model means companies can significantly increase their time to market, giving them more control over pricing and service models and delivering competitive advantage.”

Customers and SMEs

While using the cloud has clear benefits, small and medium sized businesses do have to address challenges such as security and accountability for service delivery.

“Customers will demand accountability and value from their ‘point’ vendors, requiring strong relationships and mastery of the infrastructure implications, which includes the cloud applications, as well as the network and desktop/mobile devices that serve them,” Drew explains.

“Further, implementing a new operating model is a difficult task – there are organisational, process, and product management transformations that are more challenging than infrastructure changes.”

Building a cloud business requires developing new capabilities, such as professional services, introducing a services-oriented culture, developing KPIs that focus on customer value, and putting in place a service-creation process.

Avaya offer customers consumer consumption models to this end, so they can scale in accordance with their needs. Doing so shifts costs from capital to operating expenditures in the process.

Customers expect a 360-sales process

As more and more customers go online, with connectivity becoming part of the sales, marketing and customer service environment, consumers’ demands have drifted evermore to a greatly personalised experience.

“Customers today expect to receive an always-on personal digital experience, and with 89% of companies now preparing to compete primarily on customer experience, meeting that expectation is no longer optional,” Drew says.

“Today, SMB organisations and large enterprises have the same goal – to improve engagement between team members and customers. Indeed, many SMB companies are expanding much faster than their larger enterprise rivals, and require nimble, agile, aware processes and decision-making.”

Through adopting cloud-based solutions, businesses in Africa will be able to deliver services to their customers faster at significantly reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) with a better return on investment (ROI).

The importance of mobile

One of the factors driving personalisation is mobile, the device that rarely leaves the physical reach of its owner. It’s a critical element of Avaya’s strategy, and for many other players in the IT, sales and communication space.

“The move towards mobile and smartphones has fundamentally changed the unified communications industry – after all, the desktop phone hasn’t changed much in the past few decades, while handsets have evolved out of all recognition in that time,” Drew says. 

“That’s as true in South Africa as anywhere else. According to various reports, 2016 saw smartphone sales in Africa exceed feature phones for the first time – and with this increase in smartphone usage, we’re inevitably seeing a rise in mobile applications.”

South Africa leads the rest of the continent for mobile app usage, with a third of the population using them regularly, according to Drew. Customers expect to be able to contact organisations – regardless of their size – through a range of communications channels, including mobile.

“Likewise, employees expect the freedom to work remotely and still be able to access services – and they expect to receive the same experiences from their employer as they do from other companies,” he says.

Turning data into information

Another effect online has had on the way business is conducted is the amount of data produced has increased to unprecedented levels. It is turning that data into valuable insights that is now an important challenge, which is where analytics steps in.

“Last year, Facebook users liked, on average, 4.2 million posts every minute, with Twitter users creating 350 000 Tweets per minute,” Drew says.

“Marketing teams need solutions that enable them to strategically leverage this data in order to deliver meaningful and contextual customer communications experiences.”
 
It is an area Avaya are making “significant investments in”, using various technologies that leverage automation and data analytics to enable organisations to transform their customer experience capabilities.

"Automation, in combination with data analytics, will also enable apps to source data and evaluate from social channels, which are becoming increasingly attractive to consumers,” Drew says.

As the online market continues to evolve, marketers, ICT providers and business will have to be ever alert to keep pace. The alternative is falling behind.

For more information, visit www.avaya.com.

Want to know more about how marketing, consumers, and data intersect? Read our story, IAB Digital Summit broadens the digital mind.