by: Paul Stockford, Chief Analyst, Saddletree Research
Lots of people have commitment issues. So do a lot of companies. Take, for example, the larger vendors in the contact center industry. Look at the “Partners” tab on the website of companies like Avaya and Cisco and you’ll see a list of partner companies as long as your arm. Whether these large companies are trying to cover all their bases or whether they are compensating for single-partner anxiety, it has always been this way. That’s why I was so surprised to see that Avaya, with their recent announcement of the new Avaya Aura Contact Center, has settled down and made a commitment to a single WFO partner – Verint.
New product announcements are scary enough for lots of vendors, and new product announcements that represent a completely new product concept that will likely replace a customer’s trusted, if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it contact center solution can be absolutely terrifying. So, why not lessen customer and prospect apprehension by adding a proven, reliable, cost-effective and efficiency-boosting solution under the covers of the new system. That’s exactly what Avaya has done with the addition of Verint WFO under the hood of the Aura Contact Center.
Avaya could have gone with any number of WFO suppliers as its partner but the fact that it chose Verint is a testament to Impact 360’s standing in the contact center community. I don’t have any insider information, but I would bet that Verint was put through the ringer before Avaya made the commitment to Impact 360 and I understand that there was more than one dog in the fight.
If I were one of the marketing geniuses at Avaya I would definitely want to be able to point to the stability of a Verint product under the hood of my new product to ease customer’s fears about upgrading to an untested product. Although Aura Contact Center introduces several new concepts to potential users, it also offers the security of proven Verint WFO technology under the Avaya label.
Avaya has undergone many changes over the past few years and I’m not convinced that all the changes have been for the better, but in this case Avaya has made a wise choice. Not only has Avaya acknowledged the strategic importance of WFO in a customer service productivity strategy, it has chosen a partner that has proven over the years that it can deliver the goods.
