Avaya bets on 'Internet Plus' for China transformation

Chen Wei (left 3), managing director of Avaya Greater China, and Touch Xian (right 3), general manager of Tencent's IM product department, pose at the strategic alliance ceremony in Zhuhai, Guangdong province on March 24, 2016.[Photo/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Avaya, a global provider of business communications and collaboration systems and services, will take bigger steps into the internet sector this year, said Chen Wei, managing director of Avaya Greater China.

"Enterprise contact centers are undergoing profound transformation with the development of new technologies, such as mobile internet and big data, and 'Omni-channel' has become a big trend,” Chen said during the two-day Avaya Greater China User & Partner Conference 2016 at the end of March in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

In an earlier interview, Chen, who was promoted to his current position in November 2015, outlined Avaya's new year strategy as expanding cloud services in China, such as the video cloud service and the contact center cloud service.

"We believe that the carrier of business communications, including the call centers, will move from desktop to mobile phones. Key factors such as big data, social media, Internet of Things, and multimedia engagement are driving digital transformation of enterprises," Chen added.

A clearer sign of the company's ambition in the internet sector came as Avaya announced a strategic alliance with China's internet giant Tencent to transform customer experiences during the Zhuhai conference.

According to a joint announcement, Tencent QQ will be integrated with Avaya contact center technologies to enhance voice, video and converged communication capabilities, turning the current voice self-service menus into visual menus to improve efficiency. The two companies will also collaborate in terms of marketing.

At the exhibition center, Jessica Liu, Avaya China's application and solution team manger, demonstrated the new yellow pages product co-developed by Avaya and Tencent QQ. Jessica took delivering a package as an example. When opening the QQ APP on the mobile phone, finding out the courier company, and clicking the "QQ telephone" button, the customer will see the pop-out service menu, offering both text and voice solutions.

Other services such as scanning a barcode to follow status of the package and integrating information from other channels are also included in the product.

Consumers can also launch QQ telephone by simply scanning barcode of the courier company.

Tencent QQ's popularity in China, with more than 800 million active users monthly, of which over 600 million from mobile internet terminals, established a base for the product, said Touch Xian, general manager of Tencent's IM product department.

"Although we are at the beginning stage, we have seen surprising performance for courier companies such as YTO Express and ZTO Express. The proportion of self-service can reach 85 percent, which is beyond the possibility of traditional ways,” Xian added.

When asked about the security and stability concerns, Adam Xiong, Avaya China's chief technology officer, stressed that QQ yellow pages itself is only an access channel, not the cause of the security risks.

"The original way (traditional enterprise contact center) is safe, but our service modes have to change in accordance with customer needs. Getting access to internet is a must and now many apps have been developed for enterprise contact centers,” Xiong added.

Xiong believes that with progress in the mobile internet technology, such as the popularization of 5G, stability may improve to as high as 99 percent.

Given the backdrop of China facing slowdown pressure, Avaya saw steady growth here and the Chinese market is playing a more important role in its worldwide development.

"China is currently undergoing a crucial transformation as enterprises look to stay competitive and move up the value chain. We are thrilled with the opportunities we see in this market as China outlined its Internet Plus strategy, and as enterprises increasingly bet their success on innovations by leveraging new digital technologies. We will continue to invest in this market and win together with customers and partners," said Fadi Moubarak, Avaya's channel director of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa,.

In the 2015 fiscal year ending Sept 30, Avaya achieved year-on- year sales growth in Greater China region despite market challenges.

"Under the whole economic and IT environment in China, I greatly commend my team for the achievements. In fact, I believe we still have many market opportunities here. The key point is how we can seize these opportunities, and how we perform in transitions," Chen said.

As China is one of the leaders in the mobile internet development in the world, products and applications that come out of the cooperation with Chinese Internet and e-commerce companies also have the potential to be applied to the overseas market, Chen added.

For its China expansion and localization, Avaya established a new legal entity, Avaya (Shanghai) Enterprises Management Co Ltd, which began operations on Oct 1, 2015.