In recent times, Avaya has been investing heavily in familiarizing
corporate customers with unified communication, and underlining how this
technology can help them improve performance and employee productivity. Mun-Yun
Leong observes that globally most enterprises have already taken to UC very
well, and expects a similar uptake in India soon. Excerpts
Globally, unified communication has seen a good uptake. But in India the
technology has seen very little acceptance, with most of the adoption coming
from enterprises. What, according to you, is the reason behind this slow
acceptance among SMBs?
Yes, UC is doing well globally as it improves productivity and mobility of
the workforce. As demand for mobile workforce rose in the US and Europe, the
requirement for UC, for continuity of work, also increased.
People in developed countries are worried about missing customer calls during
their absence. UC has made it possible for these employees to be connected to
the network and their customers even when on the move.
What I have seen about the Indian working pattern is that the various
communication systems are disconnected and do not talk to each other. This is
because most of these organizations use basic communication systems.
I personally feel this status quo is just a matter of time. These corporate
houses will need to take decisions on how to invest correctly on the right kind
of technologies, which will up their employee productivity. And this is bound to
happen, sooner than later.
Many Indian organizations feel that if they have videoconferencing, they
do not need to go for UC. Do you agree with this sentiment?
Today, video and voice are integrated within a communication system.
Companies go for VC or UC depending on their requirement. There are dedicated VC
systems, which can successfully support the communication network. But, this is
only if there is a need for room conferencing.
UC is a totally different ballgame. It seamlessly ties up the various
communication devices in an organization in such a way that employees are
accessible at all times. This in turn cuts down on the decision making
turnaround time, thereby increasing productivity, and also cutting costs and
delays.
Also, in the current scenario, in a lot of companies, it is client ownership,
which spells success or failure. Often this relationship is dependent on the
employee who is interfacing with the client. With UC in place, all employee
contacts are routed through corporate numbers and even if the employee moves,
the customer can still be in touch with the company rather than the employee
alone.
Besides this, often-good business prospects are lost because information is
not furnished to the client instantaneously, either because the relevant
employee is unavailable or because the approvals need to be taken from several
people. This situation can be eliminated with UC, because a real-time update is
visible for all the employees, which translates into quicker decisions.
At the same time adoption of these technologies are largely driven by
solution providers. Once they understand well which technology will fit which
client requirements and budgets, they can pitch in with the right solution. I
don't think that companies are confused about the technologies. I think they are
basically trying to understand which will suit them best.
So how do you view the UC business, given that there are many components
to it today?
Avaya looks at UC in three different levels. The first level is integrated
desktops featured with data, voice, video, and conferencing. The next level is
communication. For instance, systems are integrated in a way that if people
can't attend calls at office, those calls get diverted to either their cell
phones or home phones. In the US, people are already working with mobile
handsets, which can be tuned to a VPN, which means they are on the corporate
network at all times.
The third phase is not just people to people; it's system to people. This is
the most important facet of our communications messaging today, because we are
saying that our communication solutions will not negate the need for human
intervention.
Given the direction in which communication technology is headed today,
human intervention is being minimalized. Do you agree?
In the case of Avaya, we don't agree with minimal human intervention. Under
the communication enhanced business processes solutions that we offer, we group
these processes together in such a way that the areas where human intervention
is not critical is managed by our solutions.
At the same time, we build in intelligence in our communication network so if
there is some problem, it has to be escalated to a human being or a group of
people for resolution.
We provide business applications to enhance the quality of work amongst
employees. For instance, companies adopt supply chain application for stock
checking. This basically helps to place the orders. If the receiver does not
receive the message, then the supply chain system will be affected.
With UC, if the person does not respond to a message about stock checking,
then the system will call them on all the communication numbers and options
provided, be it an email, mobile, landline, etc.If within a time frame the
person is unable to revert the system will resend the message, and if it still
does not get a response then the problem will be escalated to someone else who
can also resolve it.
So, in short, the system might identify a problem in the assembly line but
the resolution can take place only with human intervention. At the same time,
since the system is intelligent enough to man the assembly line production,
these people can be engaged in other activities, which will improve the
company's performance.
Coming to Avaya, what is your technology road map for this year?
We have two primary business areas-UC and contact business. Avaya commands
40% of the global market in contact center business. We are continuing our
investment to enable contact centers, IP contact centers, and video contact
centers. In the UC space we are going to invest with Microsoft and IBM.
Our latest product is the Intelligent Presence Server, which is a software
that gives a real-time presence—based view of the employees on a single
dashboard. This is a collaborative effort that we are undertaking with our
business partners like IBM and Microsoft.
Besides this we are also working on communication applications based on the
social networking phenomenon. With sites like Facebook, the current generation
is sharing their personal information online and this is where UC can play a
very important role.
Most of Avaya's solutions are targeted at larger enterprises. Is this
because you do not see SMBs taking a proactive stance when it comes to
communications technology adoption?
Yes, I agree with the fact that some of our solutions like communication
enhanced business processes are witnessing better adoption among enterprises.
SMBs have not yet adopted this technology to a great extent but this could be
because traditionally enterprises are always the first to take up any
technology.
Having said that I do believe there is a need to generate better awareness
among SMBs about how certain technologies like UC will enhance their overall
productivity.
At the same time there are two sets of customers of any technology. One is
the consumer on the street and the other is the actual enterprise worker in the
corporate scenario.
Today, most customers are used to phones and voice-based devices. If you try
to introduce too many things to them then it becomes difficult for them to
understand it all and also use it. On the other hand, organizations are more
willing to invest in upcoming technology because it is easier for them to
educate their workers.
Avaya is banking a lot on UC. Is this because you view it as the be all
and end all of future communication systems?
Our communication solutions extend beyond UC, and UC is not the end all.
But, at the same time, UC is the undisputed future of enterprise communication.
Archana N Swamy
vadmail@cybermedia.co.in