Contact centre technology has changed a lot over the over the last 25 years, trying to keep up with best practice operational standards. One of our CloudCCaaS team members recalls being at a call centre conference back in 1998 where one of the vendors was promoting video calling as the next big thing to hit the contact centre market! Back in those days, Avaya was the clear market leader for large call centre requirements, with their G3R switches, expert agent routing and best service routing across multiple sites to help even out call queues. Why you need to move away from your Avaya?
What’s wrong with my Avaya?
I hear you asking, “what’s wrong with my Avaya?” Let’s put aside the current financial uncertainty Avaya faces in the market and focus on the technology. Customers with legacy on-premise Avaya technology are reporting that, in order to purchase new licenses past April 2023, they have to move to subscription licensing. A switch from owning the perpetual licenses to renting them. Some customers have reported having to sign up to three year deals when moving to subscription.
Not only does this switch have implications for any depreciated software licenses that needs careful advice from your internal finance teams, but it also means you get all the hassle of on-premise technology with the costs of cloud. Whilst not being in the cloud.
That is all fine, I like my on-premise Avaya
So, you are happy with your on-premise Avaya, subscriptions costs are good for you as you are an existing customer, so you get a discount, plus upgrades and your software licenses are fully depreciated. If you have just signed your deal then maximise the value from your Avaya Subscription and start thinking about it again in 2 years time.
Why do you need to move away from your Avaya?
Roadmap and investment in on premise technology?
The most recent Avaya Roadmap video I could find was from Todd Zerbe, SVP, Engineering at Avaya, (found here) states the roadmap will be published on 1st of November. At the time of writing on the 10th of November there is nothing on the Avaya website in their newsroom relating to the 1st of November release of the roadmap.
What we do know from this interview with the new CEO, Alan Masarek is contained in his opening statement, “I have a particular interest in technical transformation, driving companies to the cloud and I think there is a great opportunity to do that here, um, even more aggressively than they have done..”
If we take that at face value, as well as the recent announcement of Avaya and Wavenet partnering in the UK to offer Avaya one cloud CCaaS as a private cloud and the Avaya and Ringcentral Avaya Cloud office partnership for public cloud UCaaS announcement from 2020, it is all about cloud!
UC today is also reporting Avaya are axing staff and advises that “ it did not reveal how many roles were under threat..” so you have to ask yourself, are these people at risk the staff who are key to the current on-premise platforms?
Avaya’s future
With a focussed team, dedicated CEO with experience of transformation in the industry and a clear signal of a change of culture, surely Avaya can prosper in the future? We are not saying that is not possible or even probable. What we are saying is that Avaya on-premise urgently customers need to consider:
- Is the current on-premise platform I have invested in and am being asked to commit to a 3+ year subscription deal, the right solution for my business?
- Will Avaya drive companies to their cloud platforms, requiring significant technology and organisational change?
- It seems inevitable that we will have to go to the cloud, so should we widen our consideration of Cloud CCaaS options to more than just Avaya?
If you are an Avaya on-premise customer with a subscription model decision to make, CloudCCaaS is offering up to 10 organisations a free, no obligation, 30 minute call to assess your options. Get in touch today to book yours – contact us info@cloudccass.com or LinkedIn