Avaya Announces New UC Roadmap

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Today, on the same day as the Massachusetts special election for the US Senate (Go Scott Brown), Avaya announces its roadmap for the Avaya-Nortel integration. Wes Durow, the Global Marketing VP mentions that this is only 30 days after the completion of the transaction.

Key points:

• No to Rip'n'Replace. Yes to Plug'n'Play.
• Plug Aura on top of your Nortel or Avaya-branded IP PBX, plug communications-enabled business applications into Aura. Since Aura is SIP-driven, it will reduce telecom costs, support advanced and comprehensive services - IM, video, audio, messaging - to desktop devices, video endpoints, mobile devices and even softphones.
• Aura is the path to the future and Nortel ACE (Agile Communications Environment) is more advanced than any other Avaya technology for Communications-Enabled Business Application integration so it will survive as the key plug in element for Aura.
• Avaya will continue to sell existing Nortel and Avaya products. Customers will be encouraged to deploy Aura on top of their PBX deployments.
• Contact Centers need SIP, SOA: Aura and ACE are therefore key to enabling more integrated applications, independent routing engines and more conferences not point-to-point sessions. SIP at core, SOA, inherently multi-channel and conference-based.
• Contact Center Elite (Avaya) continues to be sold into large enterprise. Nortel's CC 7 will be supported and sold which is to be upgraded to CC 8.0 with more SOA and SIP features, blending technologies to target midmarkets.
• Small Medium Enterprise - TDM (Partner, Integral 5, Norstar). Hybrid (IP Office, BCM-from Nortel). All SIP (SCS-from Nortel uses sipX, an open source project). BCM will continue, IP Office will be updated to be the going forward platform for BCM customers with enhancements in admin, management and operations. SCS continues as the SIP appliance.
• Nortel data products portfolio will be taken whole. It is a built-for-purpose data portfolio optimized for real-time. Data center, campus, wireless, branch switching and a host of security capabilities. Excels in always on reliability, 7 x better resiliency, better call completion rates, 50% better TCO and smaller footprints and 20 x better performance.

Complementing the greatly expanded product portfolio with new services in support of channel model. Conflicts in approach: Nortel is very channel centric, Avaya less so. Changing to more 'industry standard approach.' Software support had been case-based and umbrella contracts for global customers. Now, moving Nortel services to a partner-enabled model.

• Avaya Professional Services, Support - making this more partner friendly (resale, software support bundled with partner service), Operations (Managed Services).
• 12 month warranty to 3 months.
• End of cases. Annuity-based required software support contracts over 2010.
• The go-to-market model for managed services is for partners to take the lead in managing customers' multi-vendor environment.

Channels - High Touch Channel Centric model - complex systems needs lots of direct touch to drive awareness and demand for the brand and product inputs. Avaya wants to be accountable for the customer relationship. Avaya Connect, announced in October 2009 will be available to Nortel resellers in February, simplifying certifications from product-based certifications for sales, support, architecture to UC.

Gives partners ability to consistently invest around the world. Stability gives them assurance and predictability in their orientation to their customers and their own support models.

Why will this deal succeed? Both have common heritage, culture, support for standards, customers and engineering standards. Buying a bankrupt company meant Avaya could insist on restructuring before the close, and could decide on the disposition of people, real estate and IPR before the deal was closed. Normally, these discussions don't begin until the close.