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According to a recently published report by Frost and Sullivan, Avaya a global business communication  solution provider is estimated to have a market share of over 42.6% of the Indian enterprise telephony market and 33.9% in the contact center solutions market. The consulting firm has also observed that the company has realigned its sales strategy to focus on delivering innovative IP Telephony applications to vertical markets including banking, finance, insurance, retail, manufacturing, logistics, travel and hospitality industries. Speaking about this and some issues faced by IT companies given the current economic climate, is Ritesh Jayswal, Director, Industry Solutions, Avaya GlobalConnect who extensively exchanged views with Network Computing’s Correspondent, Harshal Kallyanpur.
Q. What challenges are faced by the IT and ITeS companies in this troubled economic climate in the US?
A. An important challenge companies are facing is costs. They have to work with tighter budgets, control costs yet ensure maximum revenue generation from their products and services. Inflation in the country, high attrition rates, productivity are some issues that are creating a crisis for them.
Q. Are budgets a solution to handle recession? Do you think companies would buy and implement these new solutions? Would they be willing to invest the cost and time required in deploying new equipment and training the manpower?
A. Our solutions use open standards for providing unified communication. Avaya devices and applications can co exist and work with products and services that are already in use. Since most of the communication processes get automated there is considerable amount cost and time saving while ensuring increase in the revenue. There is a clear business benefit in investing in our applications now and gain on the ROI in the days to come.
Q. What solutions are you offering to help companies overcome the challenges?
A. One is to provide unified communication solutions to increase employee productivity. Our solutions combine different aspects of business communication to provide the employee with a single interface thereby saving time and improving employee efficiency. Most employees are deskbound. We have applications which give them features like instant messaging through technologies like SIP and Presence. We also have applications for mobile phones which provide a desk phone interface and help employees work with their mobile phones as they would work with their office desk phones. Companies with branches in different geographies or locations can collaborate and conference across a single bridge with our solutions. We also provide solutions to automate recruitment processes in ITeS companies.
Q. What verticals are targeting with your existing solutions? Any new additions to the existing solutions?
A. The verticals include BFSI, IT-ITES, Retail, Manufacturing, Logistics, Education, Service Providers and Government. We are seeing tremendous opportunities in segments such as Hospitality, Travel and Healthcare hence have emphasized our focus on those verticals as well. We have created multiple new solutions for various industries - which were showcased during iComm 08. Noteworthy amongst them are Video enabled customer service (video kiosk with content sharing to service customers effectively) and HNI Relationship management solution for BFSI, SpecialistConnect for Retail where expert is made available at click of a button irrespective of the location, Dealer cum Customer management solution for Manufacturing industry which can integrate with their existing ERP system, Training along with Global Office solution for IT and ITES industry to effectively collaborate in global sourcing model, especially in times when cost optimization is a key business driver. We have a team of 15 experts who analyze each vertical and create and showcase solutions for them.
Q. Can you tell us about any specific solution which was deployed recently?
A. We have over 2000 customers in the country, which encompass various verticals such as IT-ITeS, education, BFSI, manufacturing, BPOs etc. One such company is MakeMyTrip.com who has deployed a solution which includes Avaya Call Management System and Avaya Wall Board. We have also provided a solution to ThyssenKrupp Industries India which includes the Avaya IP Office 406 application and a host of network hardware and management software from our technology partners Extreme Networks, a video conferencing solution from Polycom and a network solution from Juniper. We have also provided a set of our solutions to Whirlpool.
Q. How do you provide your solutions to these verticals?
A. We have special programs for each vertical. The rollout is nationwide though the investment is phased. Phased investment indicates that we provide a particular set of solutions to a particular customer and based on the requirement we provide additional solutions.
Q. What kind of growth will unified communication market see in the years to come?
A. The market for unified communication in India is expected to see a growth of 25% CAGR over the next 5 yrs. This is on the basis of the emerging definition of unified communication in the market. The awareness of the impact of unified communication is still low and that’s where vertical based application embedding unified communication should help.
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