Innovations Inspiring Ideas from the Leader in Business Collaboration Issue 1 • 2013

INNOVATIONS INSPIRING IDEAS FROM THE LEADER IN BUSINESS COLLABORATION ISSUE 1 • 2013

LEAN, MEAN RESEARCH MACHINE Avaya Labs Research Is Inventing the Future of How We Work 28 pg

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW UC CASE STUDY THE CONTACT CENTER Avaya Sales Chief BC Hydro GOES SOCIAL Tom Mitchell 16 22 34

44997.indd 1 3/22/13 6:37 PM LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

elcome to the second issue of Avaya Innovations! In addition to our technical edge, which goes back to the We’ve revamped our format to provide you with days of Bell Labs and our predecessor companies, Avaya Wmore news, more interesting and relevant articles, also offers a strong value proposition. For example, the and a fresh design befi tting a growing magazine. total cost of ownership for Avaya’s unifi ed communications products is lower than most of our competitors, as I noted One thing we didn’t change was our focus on innovation, in a recent Avaya.com blog, “Free(ish) Ain’t Free(ish): The which is why this issue’s cover story (“Lean, Mean Research True Cost of Microsoft Lync” (avaya.com/mag1). This is not Machine,” p. 28) focuses on the researchers at Avaya Labs, just my opinion, but the fi ndings of respected independent whose work you’ll learn is directly responsible for many of analyst groups such as Nemertes Research and Constellation the most cutting-edge products in our lineup today. Research Research. Learn more about how going the Avaya way can and development is an issue near and dear to me. My father save your company money by downloading and sharing these is a retired Ph.D. chemical engineer who won Honeywell reports from my blog. Corp.’s top research honor, the Sweatt Award, back in the 1980s. Since those days, many companies have slashed their As we continue to evolve and improve the R&D budgets, preferring to outsource their innovation to Avaya Innovations magazine, I’d love to hear universities or startups. Avaya hasn’t been immune to that your suggestions for stories from Avaya trend. Yet, I’m proud to say that Avaya not only continues to and also from our ecosystem of partners, invest heavily in R&D—19 percent of our product revenue!— developers, and customers. Please email me but that it continues to pay off, with 57 internally developed at my address below. products released last year. Eric Lai, Editor [email protected]

Pictured (front row from right): Ravi Sethi, Dorée the patent ofﬁ ce busy—and the Duncan Seligmann, Ajita John, Bengi Karacali-Akyamac; On The product pipeline humming— (back row from right): Heinz Teutsch, Jim M. Landwehr, COVER by solving real-world business Avram Levi; featured in cover story on p. 28, “Lean, collaboration challenges. Mean Research Machine”

Avaya Innovations Avaya Innovations magazine is published four times Issue 1, 2013 a year. Read and download it online at avaya.com/mag2 Editor: Eric Lai Subscriptions are complimentary for qualiﬁ ed individuals and companies. Sign up at

Editor Publisher: avaya.com/mag3 Richard Solosky the Creative Director: The content contained in this publication is for from informational purposes only and may not be Patrick Graziano incorporated into a contract or agreement. Letter Director of Global Brand Management, Avaya: Copyright ©2013, Avaya and/or its afﬁ liates. 2 Laura Misdom Chief Marketing Ofﬁ cer, Avaya: Mark Wilson Innovations Avaya

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What’s Inside Issue 1 • 2013 6:37

3/22/13 3/22/13 6:37 PM 34 38 pg pg INSIDE WHAT’S 28 pg can embrace business your How the multichannel world IS IT TIME FOR A PRIVATE CLOUD? savings— cost Delivering and more LEAN, MEAN MACHINE RESEARCH is inventing Labs Research Avaya work we of how the future THE CONTACT CENTER GOES SOCIAL HARD CALL: LAST FAIL CONTRIBUTORS USER SPOTLIGHT: THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON’S ROLAND RIVERA STUDY: VIDEO CASE HEALTH RENOWN HOW-TO: PERSONAL VIDEO CONFERENCING OF BLOGS: BEST MEGAPHONE SERVICE CUSTOMER STUDY: CASE UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS BC HYDRO HEAD-ON: MITCHELL CHIEF TOM SALES AVAYA UP: PARTNER RESEARCH CEO MARK BRAYAN INTEGRATED AND EVENTS NEWS SOLUTIONS THE BIG IDEA? WHAT’S CORNER: CONSUMERIZATION VIDEO SMARTPHONES FOR THE NUMBERS BY 18 16 41 14 37 27 22 24 43 20 08 05 06 3 04

44997.indd 44997.indd 3 CONSUMERIZATION CORNER Go Go VIDEO Looking for the best smartphones for mobile video conferencing? Check out this heroic trio.

By: Jude Chao

ideo chatting and conferencing are on the rise, thanks to the smartphone. I’m not just Vtalking about Skype or FaceTime. Now in version 3, the free Avaya Scopia® Mobile app brings high-deﬁ nition, enterprise-class video collaboration to iOS and Android, and connects you to 2 million installed video conferencing and telepresence in a Google Play user review of the brightest display of systems worldwide. Video collaboration with Scopia Mobile, one user touts it as the three, however, at co-workers and business partners has never “excellent even over 3G,” making it 500 cd/m2 max brightness. been easier. ideal for video conferences on slower Whether for an individual in connections. Unfortunately, while the To take advantage, though, you need the right a BYOD-friendly workplace, Galaxy S III’s 4.8-inch, 1920x1080 HD phone. Our featured smartphones all play well with or an enterprise looking Super AMOLED™ display is large, it’s the H.239-compliant Scopia Mobile and offer clear to make an upgrade for also dimmer than the competition, at call quality, top-notch specs, and speedy 4G LTE its teams, a smartphone 330 cd/m2 max brightness. It’s also for jitter-free video and data collaboration. For buy is a major decision. As more difﬁ cult to adjust than video conferencing, these phones all feature front- video chatting continues competing phones. facing cameras capable of recording HD video at a to go more mainstream smooth 30 frames per second. They also all come iPhone fans will be happy to hear for business, you’ll want with Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi, micro-USB, and 3.5-mm that Apple’s iPhone 5 improves to invest in a smartphone headphone connections. For two-jack Skype and upon its predecessors. Call quality is that isn’t just capable of PC headsets, however, you will need a 3.5-mm especially upgraded: Apple added a running Scopia Mobile, but smartphone “Y” adapter. third microphone to the iPhone 5, also capable of making the Across the board, the HTC Droid DNA impresses. noticeably improving most of it. This will help

For video conferencing, I found the Droid DNA’s 5 call quality, you maximize your ROI and quad-core processor and bright, sharp 5-inch LCD particularly on your ﬁ rm’s communications screen, with a 1920x1080 resolution, to deliver speakerphone. infrastructure. iPhone Out of all the smooth, vibrant full HD playback. The display is Happy smartphone phones I tried, also bright, maxing out at 364 candelas per square Apple shopping! meter (cd/m2), brighter than most LCD monitors. I found the iPhone 5 delivered Corner The front-facing camera shoots video in up to 1080p, the best of all our reviewed phones. As the clearest calls. for call quality, the Droid DNA is good in terms Like the Galaxy of loudness, clarity, and noise S III, the iPhone 5 LINKS: cancellation, though I did notice shoots video up Avaya Scopia Mobile: some minor, infrequent crackling to 720p. Video avaya.com/mag4 Consumerization in standard calls. playback doesn’t quite match the Download our Scopia app: The Samsung Galaxy S III Droid DNA or For iOS, go to the 4 also packs plenty of power Galaxy S III, though. iTunes Store and speed for mobile video The iPhone 5’s

III conferencing and data 4-inch, 1136x640 For Android, go to the S collaboration. Audio and Retina display is Google Play Store call quality are strong, and smaller and slightly less crisp than

Galaxy the front-facing camera that of the Droid DNA and Galaxy Innovations records video at 720p. S III. Credit the iPhone 5 for having

As for video playback,

Avaya Samsung

44997.indd 4 3/22/13 6:37 PM By the Numbers Issue 1 • 2013 55 3/22/136:373/22/13 6:37 PM PM BY THE NUMBERS BY 44997.indd44997.indd 5 5 WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA? THE PROBLEM WITH PRESENCE By: Eric Lai

With the dawning of the ‘Age of Awareness,’ collaboration is getting a whole lot smarter.

nce upon a time, his or her physical location—to save presence was you steps and make you more supposed to be productive. But most of these have It’s like having O been piecemeal efforts to date. To go all the key to enabling real-time a hyper-effi cient collaboration with co-workers the way, you need more than context— and customers. Letting you you need Awareness. administrative know if people are in a meeting So how do you gain Awareness? assistant who knows or on a call is valuable. It’s also According to Avaya Labs Research not enough. “In most cases the Director Dr. Venky Krishnaswamy, you what you need primary piece of information must analyze ALL the latent institutional before you do. learned from presence is whether wisdom already collected and saved as people have touched their metadata by your company, and then keyboard or mouse in the past apply it to predict four things for you, documents needed for the meeting on your fi ve minutes,” wrote Avaya Senior the Information Worker: email, hard drive, or network; and open Vice President Brett Shockley in a them on whatever PC or mobile device you white paper last year. What people you are most are using. Similarly, if you get a phone call Turns out, the same technology likely to be involved with. from a co-worker, the Awareness Engine trends that created the boon of will automatically fi nd and open up the What conversations and with Big Data have also cursed us, current versions of the relevant documents. whom are most relevant to the Information Worker, with Or let’s say you are a lawyer preparing for your current activity. Too Much Data. It’s turned us all a case. The Awareness Engine can mine into accidental hoarders, with What information (documents, email threads, case briefs, correspondence, more emails, documents, IM emails, slides, etc.) are most and even social media postings to present conversations, voicemails, etc. relevant to the user or topic comprehensive background information than we can easily sift through at hand. along with a list of colleagues you could before a meeting. The problem ping for more help. The beauty is that is, too many of our meetings What calendar events, all of these predictive activities are done start late because, ironically, we both past and present, are without the need to program anything. The are manually searching through signifi cant to you. Awareness Engine’s software agents simply our data in order to make our observe, learn, and predict what you need. meetings productive. It’s like having a hyper-effi cient The Awareness Engine hasn’t been administrative assistant who knows Some collaboration vendors integrated in any Avaya products yet. But what you need before you do. That’s are trying to use contextual expect it to arrive very soon. And when what Avaya’s Awareness Engine does. information—such as the identity this Age of Awareness arrives, expect your Idea? Developed by Avaya Labs researchers, of a person, the social networks productivity, and that of your colleagues,

Big the Awareness Engine constantly he or she may be a member of, or to skyrocket. monitors and analyzes the work you do the in order to predict and present what you might need. What’s Turns out, the LINKS: “The overall result is a much smarter Awareness: Reinventing same technology enterprise with the potential for highly Enterprise Collaboration ampliﬁ ed output per employee,” says 6 trends that created (Krishnaswamy) Krishnaswamy, who worked on the the boon of Big Awareness Engine with Avaya Labs avaya.com/mag7 researcher Ajita John and others. Data have also Awareness: Driving the Next cursed us. Imagine that a calendar invite pops up. Generation of Productivity Innovations You can click once to join the conference (Shockley) in either audio, video, or Web chat avaya.com/mag8

Avaya mode; access the latest versions of the

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Avaya Innovations News and Events NEWS ANDEVENTS

8 NETWORK-POCALYPSEN SOCHI 2014:ENSURINGTHEREISNO all transmitted withoutahiccup duringnext February’s games. vendor, to but they are working closelywithAvaya, theofﬁ I just minutes away, it’s also western Caucasusmountains Miami orCancun.Butwiththe after all;it’s Russia’s answer to is asubtropical beachresort, 66 degrees Fahrenheit. Sochi Olympics, thetemperature hit of theSochi2014Winter communications vendor, to with Avaya, theofﬁ but they are working closely control ofOlympicorganizers, The weather may beoutofthe cooperates. at least whentheweather Russia’s winter playground— The weather may beoutof thecontrol ofOlympicorganizers, anniversary ofthestart that attheone-year pre- t was probably noshocker E avaya.com/mag10 customer experience management: Check outthisinteractive infographic on #connectingdifferently @yourcustomers Are you? T make sure thatTVsignals,tweets, andtelephone callsare W O cial R :-( K

P more television viewers alike. Olympic workers, tourists, and available andsmoothfor wired communications are to well astheathletes’ villages all on-site sportingvenues as the Avaya network willunite Architecture (VENA)gear, Virtual Enterprise Network skating ﬁ was usedfor theworld ﬁ since December 2012,whenit undergoing real-world tests games. The network hasbeen hiccup duringnext February’s are alltransmitted withouta tweets, andtelephone calls make sure thatTVsignals, O ensure thatwireless and

C : avaya.com/mag9 are More customers are now connecting withbusinesses online. 80%useemail,37% call. nals. A cial Credit: Sochi2014On L Using communications Y :-) Avaya P Read S gure

Flickr. E #1

How customers connect F DISTRIBUTOR: AVAYA uniﬁ complementary.” SYNNEX intraining andenablement.This isvery the VoIP sideofthehouseandhave supportfrom partners are now goingto beableto move into Soderlund (pictured) told new for them,” Avaya ChannelVice President Karl and storage. Goinginto thevoice world willbe who are HP-centric andlargely focused onservers Avaya will“gain access to a variety ofpartners complements thelineupthatwe Storage. Networking. Video. Voice. of changesgoingoninthedatacenter. Compute. distribution, told Peter Larocque, SYNNEX president for U.S. serve ourpartnersandcustomers inthisspace,” “I thinkitwillbeanexceptional opportunityto ﬁ SYNNEX isapubliclylisted 10,000-employee global rm ed with begin distributing andsupportingAvaya’s Corporation announced inFebruary itwill ortune 500ITdistributor SYNNEX communications $10.3 WINS billion The VAR Guy in revenue products CRN magazine. “These MAJOR blog.“There are alot SYNNEX in have.” in 2012. Avaya really the U.S.

U.S.

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News and Events Issue 1 • 2013 4:33

3/26/13 3/26/13 4:33 PM avaya.com/mag27 rm MarketsandMarkets. MARKET Read more: UCAAS AWARDS avaya.com/mag26 Systems Vendor of the c Inbound Contact Routing avaya.com/mag29 PACIFIC Read more: EXPLODING desktop video providers: Avaya, Cisco, ve major conferencing video desktop pervasive for TCO lower cantly avaya.com/mag25 IN HIT ASIA Read more: 2 A Award for Self Services in Contact c Customer Value Enhancement Read more: PLAYER WINS RESEARCH REPORT CIO NETWORK INSIGHTS consumer mobile invasion. ROADSHOW MAJOR AVAYA NEW A TRENDS FOR TODAY From real-time analytics to the choice between private or public clouds, seven things that enterprises will need to confront this year. 7 COMMUNICATION what the future could hold. Constellation Research compares fi vendor’s offerings, the analyst provides an Polycom, Microsoft, and Vidyo. For each with call control, encoding technologies, overview of the solution, evaluating integration DESKTOP VIDEO? several use scalability, network bandwidth computation, and the total cost of ownership for $2.52 billion in 2013 to $7.62 (UCaaS) is expected to grow from ed communications as a service cases. Avaya is found to have signifi Take this quick online test to check if your organization is ready for the TCO FOR WHO’S GOT THE LOWEST versus other UC vendors. AVAYA SULLIVAN: ASSESS YOUR BYOD READINESS APPOINTS Avaya the 2012 Asia Pacifi rm Frost & Sullivan named & NETWORKING European IT pros share their views on the state of networking today, and 1

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

EMEA 18 cities in Western Europe and the U.K. in January and February. Aimed at Avaya’s EMEA Networking Roadshow hit space, the Roadshow drew more than 650 Avaya partners and customers. Avaya partners and customers in the SME 25 percent, according to research fi annual growth rate (CAGR) of billion by 2018, a compound on their existing and enterprises deploying UCaaS be driven by video and collaboration solutions This fast growth will as a top player. was one of the vendors named by MarketsandMarkets infrastructures. Avaya Research fi AVAYA in February. Ebrahimi comes to Avaya from Verizon, where he was a senior Fari Ebrahimi was appointed CIO for Avaya Operations and led a number of large-scale global initiatives. With more vice president and CIO of Verizon Services leading organizations, Ebrahimi brings innovative and transformational than 20 years of experience working with its IT excellence throughout the entire organization. leadership that will help Avaya enhance ANALYST: The market for unifi FROST of the 2012 Asia Pacifi Year as well as the winner Contact Routing Award. year Avaya has won the Inbound Center. This is the second

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Avaya Avaya Innovations | Q3 HeadQuoted On NEWS ANDEVENTS:

10 QUOTED 3/22/13 6:37PM

6:37 PM NEWS AND EVENTS: SHOW US YOUR AVAYA! News and Events: Show Us Your Avaya!

Issue nstead of showing our products to them, we asked our customers to turn the tables on us and show 1

us THEIR Avaya products. And boy, did they come through! View and “like” the collage on the Avaya

I • Facebook page: facebook.com/avaya. There you can also check out Avayans doing the Harlem Shake 2013 using Avaya video conferencing.

44997.indd 11 3/22/13 6:38 PM NEWS AND EVENTS: EVENTS

Marc Randall, Senior Vice President of Networking, gives the keynote address at the Avaya Technology Forum (ATF) in Orlando held Feb. 26–28. The show drew more than 500 attendees, double the prior year, from 14 countries.

Avaya’s Mark Fletcher (aka @Fletch911) interviews analyst Zeus Kerravala for the Avaya Technology Forum podcast at ATF.

A dance ﬂ ash mob was one of the highlights of the Dallas stop of the Avaya Evolutions roadshow on Feb. 6 (on Twitter #AvayaEvolutions).

Senior Vice President Gary Barnett Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author and Senior Director Amir Hameed Guy Kawasaki gave the keynote speech demonstrate the Flare® Experience to an audience of more than 830. uniﬁ ed communications app on iPad.

PartnerConnection Day on January 31 in Mexico City drew Avaya’s Mid-Market Director for India, Ajay Joseph, 353 attendees. On stage (left to right): Galib Karim, Managing speaking at the Healthcare CIO Summit, which Director of Avaya LATAM; Maggie Bautista, Marketing attracted 40 of India’s leading CIOs on Feb. 7–8. Manager of Avaya LATAM; Karla Nussbaumer, Presales Manager of Avaya México; Rolando Alanis, Sales Manager of Avaya partner Temsa; Roberto Ricossa, Marketing Director of Avaya Americas International; and Arturo Vargas, Channel Manager of Avaya México. Events Events: and News 12

The ﬁ rst ﬁ ve photos were shot by Avaya’s Andres Larranaga. Submit news and photos about Avaya events Innovations to [email protected] Avaya

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News and Events: Coming Events Issue 1 • 2013 4:34

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avaya.com/mag14 avaya.com/mag14 pccamericas.org iaug.org interop.jp callcenter-japan.com avaya-evolutions.com interop.com avaya-evolutions.com For More Info Without ciency EVENTS COMING avaya.com/mag12 Online:

: Online: avaya.com/mag11 o Los Angeles Minneapolis Orlando Osaka Orlando Chiba Mexico City Las Vegas Bogota, Columbia Location LLLLL EVENTS: AND NEWS avaya.com/mag13 iaug.org iaug.org iaug.org IAUG CONVERGE2013 Interop Japan Avaya Evolutions Avaya PartnerConnection Day Avaya PartnerConnection Day Interop Call Center CRM Demo & Conference Avaya Evolutions Partner Community Council (PCC) Event Customer Experience cing May 14: Simplifying Contact Center Administration VIRTUAL EVENTS/WEBINARS June 11: Innovation Implementations (in Contact Center): Live From Avaya Technical Forum 2013! Online: Avaya’s Mark Fletcher podcasts from Avaya’s premier engineering-focused conference. Over the Top NG911: Enterprise NG911 on the Legacy E911 Network Speakers: Mark Fletcher, Avaya; Matt Serra, Rave Mobile Safety; Tim Kenyon, Conveyant Online: Speech Analytics Supercharged Quality Monitoring: Deliver Greater Efﬁ Sacriﬁ Speaker: Dave Palmieri, Avaya Online: Moving to the Cloud: Avaya-Esna Solution for Google Apps Integration Speakers: Denise Gilardone and Gavin Lee, Avaya; Lee Ho, Esna Technologies Online: June 3–7 June 12 May 15 June 3–6 June 12–14 June 13 Date April 18 April 25 May 6–10 2

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The Scopia® Elite 6000 MCU Is Powerful—and Power-Sipping

Avaya’s new Scopia® Elite 6000 Series multipoint control unit (MCU) may offer the best bang for the buck on the market today for companies interested in doing ® high-defi nition video conferencing. And in these green times, Scopia Elite MCU 6000 the Scopia Elite’s energy-effi cient ways also make sense for the environment as well as the corporate bottom line. While it comes as a 1U rack-ready server, the Scopia Elite 6000 uses a hybrid hardware/software H.264-based Avaya Releases Video Network Readiness architecture that supports up to 40 1080p/30 frames per and Monitoring Tool second ports, or 80 720p/30 fps ports. That beats both hardware and software competitors: eVident is a new network monitoring tool from Avaya that will be an invaluable aid to any IT manager expecting to increase Scopia Elite Polycom Cisco MCU their video traffi c over the next several years. The software Hardware MCUs 6000 RMX 5300 can simulate video conferencing traffi c to assess your 720p ports density per 1U 80 30 20 network readiness at low cost, monitor video traffi c in action, 1080p ports density per 1U 40 15 10 and provide an analysis of the audio and video quality.

Polycom Scopia Elite Collaboration LifeSize Software MCUs 6000 Server UVC Avaya eVident Monitoring 720p ports density per 1U 80 20 15

1080p ports density per 1U 40 N/A N/A

Source: Avaya.com.

It also requires as little as one-quarter of the energy of competitors’ MCU boxes: (W)

Avaya Expands DevConnect Select Product Program

Consumption Avaya has expanded its DevConnect Select Product Program (SPP) with the addition of solutions from 13 new and existing

Power SPP partners. Each is available for order directly from Avaya and its channel partners in the U.S. and Canada, with delivery, implementation, service, and support provided by the SPP companies. Partners with new solutions include: Source: Avaya.com

Solutions • CallCopy • Mutare • Symmetrics The result, says Telepresence Options’s David Maldow, “is • DuVoice • NetIQ • Conveyant the scalability and ﬂ exibility of a software bridge, with the • FCS • OAISYS • RSI 14 power of a specialized appliance. In fact, it is arguably the • Knoahsoft • ObjectTel most powerful MCU, at least in terms of resolution support • Movitas • Phybridge and capacity.” Avaya’s DevConnect SPP has introduced 30 solutions since its The Scopia Elite 6000 Series MCUs can support all inception in May 2012. standards-based telepresence systems, including Cisco/

Innovations Tandberg, LifeSize, and Polycom. It also supports personal Avaya DevConnect Marketplace: avaya.com/mag20 video conferencing and BYOD via the Scopia Desktop and

Avaya Scopia Mobile applications.

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Solutions Issue 1 • 2013 6:38

3/22/13 3/22/13 6:38 PM

. Read more about Action and is initiated, Avaya

avaya.com/mag19 way whatever experts with Avaya support.avaya.com

Need, Immediate Urgent Service the Total occur, shutdown Should a full system When get help. to way is the fastest Outage button a to the answers and provide click on this button you a call to short questions, few environment. Web current the just rich capabilities are current ASW’s The will be an option, so Video beginning. Soon, Web chat, or Web via phone, than communicating rather see and be able to tablet or PC), you’ll (via your Talk a rich video through experts with Avaya interact One of Avaya technology the leveraging experience, also in the works are other features Many Video. Touch so you and its capabilities accessible the site make to can communicate Web the same robust all from you, for convenient most is all about Avaya from ASW new The environment. and is available client experience your improving greatly or through support agreement clients with an Avaya to information more For partner. authorized Avaya your visit on the ASW, Video: One Touch Avaya the Avaya queue for priority in the voice given you’re the without leaving team Response Emergency connection a voice in the near future, and the you Either way, Talk. via Web As scratch. from be starting agent won’t available resources the extensive explored you’ve a service has been assembling Ava the ASW, through as cataloging the as well in the background, request found you’ve items and other audio, documents, video, and request service The and search. browsing in your to available now are search of your content contextual and channels choose the best and the agent as you you resolution. and issue troubleshooting for resources

immediate contact an absolute advanced videos, access and And, in search. ne your than a effective cient and Client Services Avaya of President have you Ava, Through help. communications ed can also access Ava information, product the Avaya throughout support information to Michael Runda,

arise in issues technical no surprise that complex t’s I access articles and insights on which offers Knowledgebase, engineers who deal the talented solutions from known can also query the Avaya Ava day. every with issues reﬁ to you for Knowledgebase addition to such as how-to educational content parts. order help you and even downloads, solutions, with just no known uncovers exploration If your agent or, chat with a live will launch a Web a click Ava Avaya all of your lists dashboard ASW personalized Your closed and recently current your displays products, the to access exclusive you and gives requests, service resources. support of Avaya full range support the Avaya support need, Ava, your Whatever to is ready avatar, Ava Introducing

uniﬁ today’s with their multiple products, environments center But it’s vendors. applications, and even can (ASW) Support Website Avaya new the how wonder and faster issues help our clients and partners resolve environment. of their technology control gain more you how revolutionizing are of the ASW features New efﬁ obtain support. More quickly identify help you phone call, these features and guide you of a problem is the source which product It is a true multimedia experience resolution. through and and the largest dashboard a personalized featuring ASW The base ever. knowledge Avaya powerful most chat, and quick escalations, live search, assisted provides agents over with our best in the near future) talk (coming the time and reduce valuable you It can save the Web. in the call-backs, hand-offs, and other delays need for process. resolution Than Ever Effective Total and Talk, Web Dashboard, Outage “ER” Button Service By: Personalized Includes Website New More and Faster Support: Avaya 15

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Avaya Innovations Head-On: Tom Mitchell HEAD-ON

16 MAKER MARKET Avaya and itsecosystem in2013? to obtainthosesolutions. sales professional oracertiﬁ that needsoursolutionswillbe ableto Externally, we care about. cost ofownership. more productive, more competitive, whilereducing total articulate enterprise base. Every salespersonneedsto beableto our latest be more successful. Internally, we needto focus ondriving I believe there are two challenges we needto overcome to today? challenges thatAvaya faces asitgoesto What are someoftheinternal andexternal already, andcould hittheground running! It helpsthatIknew oursalesandchannelteams pretty well love thesalesexperience, boththeartandscience ofit. with ateam to putourstrategies into action.Andfrankly, I the day-to-day actionofdrivingsalesmotions,working It hasbeencrazy busy, butcrazy fun.Ilike beingapartof What’s itbeenlike since you took over? By: R Whatkindsoftransformations are instore for Eric Lai how Avaya solutionscanmake theircustomer andmarket-leading innovations into ourlarge Avaya anditsglobalsalesstrategy. challenges andthechangesaheadfor ﬁ (SMEs) for thepast three years. Inhis small andmedium-sized enterprises team anditsglobalsalesstrategy with having overseen Avaya’s channelpartner Global Sales ecently elevated SeniorVice President for rst in-depthQ&A,Mitchell shares the needmore coverage, sothatany customer Because that’s whatourcustomers Tom Mitchell isafamiliar face, ed andhighlytrained partner

engageanAvaya

market

a strong growth strategy. They needto continually assess responsible for understanding theirmarket andidentifying engaged, whichmeansthatour Avaya salesorganization is Avaya’s salesmodel iscustomer-centered andchannel- more successful? How doyou planto help Avaya grow andbecome for any salescommunity. expertise consistently. That isanexceptional performance organization andchannelpartnersare delivering that Customers want to buyfrom experts, andourAvaya sales and theirservice credentials by almost 300 percent. increased theirsalesanddesigncredentials by 78 percent an example, inthelast two years aloneourpartnershave our continually increasing customer satisfaction scores. As partners have embraced ournew training anditshows in four years since we an extraordinarily capableecosystem ofpartners.Inthe that ourteam embraces inevery interaction. We keep customers loyal anditisanimmenseresponsibility this isthecore satisfaction. They Our Avaya salesorganization iscommitted to organization andpartnerecosystem today? What are thebiggest strengths oftheAvaya sales ofwhatthey do. They are Avaya intheeyes ofthecustomer;

revamped ourcompetency model,our holdthepower to customer alsohave

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6:38 PM Head-On: Tom Mitchell Issue 1 • 2013 17 3/22/136:383/22/13 6:38 PM PM , video ®

TOM MITCHELL TOM Speech Analytics for boosting boosting Speech Analytics for

. If the customer’s needs are less complex, we have have we complex, less are needs . If the customer’s ® The Exumas, which is a cluster of islands Exumas, which is a cluster The by there travel in the Bahamas. You thrilling. small boat which is always Hobbies: Boating and skiing with friends and family. admire: you Leader meet to enough fortunate I was Powell. and spend some time with Colin and humble. decent, him reasonable, I found book read: Last Guns, Germs, and Steel Diamond. Jared by Family: Family: daughters, and our two Lori My wife and Kayla. Kristin restaurant: Favorite home near my is a casual place Coconuts had a never I’ve Lauderdale. in Fort bad meal at Coconuts. spot: Vacation and they shift wallet share from our competitors to Avaya. Avaya. to our competitors from share shift wallet and they about. I can get excited a combination That’s an IP Offi ce solution that offers the lowest total cost of of cost total lowest the offers that solution ce an IP Offi fast constructs, its increased With in the industry. ownership the mid- thresholds, investment cash, and lower time to the next reach to will enable our sales community market of success. level excited you are products Avaya what Personally, sales and the Avaya about and think customers too? should be, community four are there ce, and IP Offi Aura Avaya In addition to Scopia get me excited: that really products Aurix conferencing, What words of advice would you offer to anyone who anyone to offer you would of advice What words sales community? in joining the Avaya is interested I always encourage any sales professional or partner to be greatest for in training Invest in the business. with the best because this is what satisfaction, customer and competency long run. off in the pay is going to for business but fast-growing a newish SMEs are accelerate? to continue do we How Avaya. The this market. grow that will imperatives two have We coverage, market broad have we that ensure to is rst fi reach to how who know channel partners leveraging customers. these mid-sized a highly desirable develop to continue is to second The ahead of our steps two that stays solution portfolio unlike because, an edge in this regard have We competition. small and mid- for has choices Avaya competitors, many needs, has sophisticated If a customer customers. market solution in Avaya has a sophisticated our sales community Aura customer experience, the Identity Engines security tool Identity Engines security tool the experience, customer solutions. All of our line of data networking and BYOD, for the end customer ts for benefi real deliver these products , which has has reduced Avaya Avaya has reduced improvements have have improvements video conferencing, video conferencing, ® Speech Analytics Speech Analytics and IP Offi ce, there there ce, and IP Offi ® ® In addition to Avaya Avaya to In addition Finally, the launch of content syndication created a created syndication the launch of content Finally, content Avaya delivers that automatically process free in nine languages and across partner websites to latest the receive always so customers all theaters, our partners. from information increased sales productivity with a faster, easier, and easier, with a faster, sales productivity increased portal. intuitive more Quality Framework New Tool Now ProServices The times by turnaround quote Services Professional for response customer ensuring faster 95 percent, and our partners. Avaya The new sales and partner portal new The design options and added free more introduced the risk associated reduce effectively support to technology. with new Aura for boosting customer customer boosting for the Identity experience, for Engines security tool data and our line of BYOD, solutions. networking • • • • What kinds of issues are you most urgently trying to trying to urgently most you are What kinds of issues today? sales community the Avaya for solve and complexity reduce to is how challenge My biggest this end, I have To the ease of doing business. increase made already that have improvements championed many Some of effective. and more faster, simpler, our processes nine months include: the past the highlights over their partner community and determine if they need to need to if they and determine their partner community the capture to partners in order or further develop recruit on customer their eye losing while never growth necessary doing: Avaya are what we exactly And that’s satisfaction. solution new into and expand share market take needs to optimal an have need to do this, we to In order areas. sales and that includes our Avaya strategy, sales coverage of new our partners, and the exploration organization, dynamic. It is very market. to routes Aurix are four products that products four are get me excited: really Scopia 44997.indd44997.indd 17 17 PARTNER UP SIP ON THIS

Integrated Research CEO Mark Brayan shares his prognosis.

By: Jude Chao

How far along are your clients in transitioning away from simple VoIP to full unifi ed communications? We have a lot of big Fortune 500 clients. All of them have Integrated Research (IR) is a longtime VoIP deployed, but most are moving toward UC to take leader in unifi ed communications advantage of its broader base of functionality. That’s where we come in, in terms of helping them manage that transition performance monitoring software. and get the most out of that investment in UC. How far along I asked Mark Brayan, managing director they are varies, but they are all moving in that direction. and CEO of IR, an Avaya DevConnect What common challenges can switching to UC solve? partner, about his views on the future of It’s about improving communication and productivity. For example, one of our customers, a global bank, has offi ces enterprise communications. in dozens of countries and teams that work across those offi ces. Their UC system enables team members to see who is available at any moment in the day so they can schedule How interested are your clients in other SIP calls and meetings very effi ciently—without tedious email applications, such as desktop and mobile ping-pong to fi nd a time that suits everyone. They rely video conferencing?

Brayan on this feature every day, so it needs to be available and Very interested. Another one of our customers, a performing, and this is where Prognosis comes in. large technology company, is rolling out desktop video Mark Prognosis [IR’s IP telephony management solution] conferencing to improve the effectiveness of remote

Up: ensures that every part of the UC ecosystem is performing collaboration. The adoption of the service is heavily around the clock so the teams can get on with their work inﬂ uenced by the quality of the video. It’s not used if the and maximize their productivity.

Partner quality is poor.

18 “One of our customers is a global bank with offi ces in dozens of countries. Their UC system enables team members to see who is available at any moment in the day so they can schedule calls and meetings very effi ciently—without tedious email ping-pong to fi nd a time that suits everyone.” Innovations Avaya

44997.indd 18 3/22/13 6:38 PM PM

Partner Up: Mark Brayan Issue 1 • 2013 6:38

3/22/13 3/22/13 6:38 PM

an iOS need also have so I always work,

so anything an ecosystem, ce. kids. to bike BRAYAN MARK working are their systems see how K. Greenleaf; Robert by so it’s all part of the UC ecosystem, and the kids are the owners, know IM, email. That’s

know. to restaurant? Favorite The us in Sydney. from the street Naan, down Thai we great, food’s go and eat anywhere I could I don’t think welcome. my take that I couldn’t IN BRIEF BRAYAN books? Favorite Leadership Servant Aurelius. Marcus by Meditations saw? you movie great Last Redemption. Shawshank The day? check every you Website I ride my weather. The

people to application for not in the ofﬁ when they’re years? few the next out over see being phased do you optimization technologies and it all needs to work, to get used, it all needs all going to email by message a voicemail I can deliver together. work we’ll not part of that ecosystem, that’s with UC. Anything phase out. future? in IR’s What’s our multivendor 10, version launch Prognosis about to We’re 10 includes a completely Version UC management system. version This engine. and reporting user interface new users not only technical analytics and gives more delivers need to they users all the information but also business We out of those environments. get value and communications call center What once-common thing about UC is that it’s The is probably or support that ecosystem that doesn’t integrate be point solutions, will always be phased out. There going to have tools Our monitoring also be integrated. but they’ll cool The that whole ecosystem. do—support they to—and video, a number of choices: are there thing about UC is that voice,

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44997.indd 44997.indd 19 44997.indd 20 44997.indd 20

Avaya Avaya Innovations | Q3 Best of Blogs

20 THE SOCIAL MEDIA: F social media.Here are somerecommendations onhow to The majorityofcompanies are rolling outacustomer service strategy for to service andonly20percent are aboutmarketing, according to the actionabletweets andposts a company receives, 80percent are related As socialmediagrows, consumers’ useofitfor supportgrows aswell. Of sales, support,ormarketing; they simplyseethelarger brand. no delineationbetween contact channels,nordothey differentiate in terms ofdiscrete channelswheninteracting withcompanies. They make engage withbrands ontheirterms andviatheirchannels.They donotthink written letter, telephone, andthenemailchat.Customers want to or services from companies. Astechnology changed,thechannelsgrew: or decades,consumers have runinto problems withpurchased products CUSTOMER SERVICE MEGAPHONE besuccessful. Forbes between

. By: CarlKnerr 3/22/13 6:38PM

6:38 PM PM

Best of Blogs Issue 1 • 2013 6:38

3/22/13 3/22/13 6:38 PM

ROI faster Social Avaya’s that and how systems IVR the amount of at us on Twitter , follow cally with respect avaya.com/mag24 avaya.com/mag21

ADVANTAGES: avaya.com/mag22 ® answer The or both? or one that doesn’t view many BEST competency. too just video conferencing ® avaya.com/mag23 us on Facebook. , and like : that OF BLOGS BEST PATTERSON : PAT : ROBIN RAULF-SAGER nd avaya.com/blogs

The of the Rest Jon Alperin by Service,” Not Customer spends using time the customer the system.” Experience, at “Customer – Comment to a perspective designed from are queue lengths short, without keep as to consideration an important “I think Jon has drawn and service between distinction speciﬁ experience, and IVR systems. centers contact to I ﬁ Read the blog: out the “Seven checked If you’ve 2013” For Trends Communications that the cloud know you paper, white But which cloud: business. for is ready public, private, a small are depends on whether you Fortune regulated a heavily business, 500 company, IT as a core Read the blog: for Trends Communication “Seven 2013” ‘TEN SCOPIA Scopia Read the blog: CLOUDS’ OF BOTH ‘THE BEST By ROI AND DRIVING FASTER REDUCED TCO’ By virtually anywhere, works—from and on any network any over anytime, so work does Scopia But why device. why, explains Robin well? achieve helps organizations TCO. and reduced by of Blogs” is curated “Best Read us Media Manager Jaime Schember. at @Avaya

The speak, an by Social media of a the context company handle and a Twitter the online user match the of evaluate personality and Expose your

not just Users of social media are review a little fun at shift changes. of mentions percent out the 98 lters of customer the business to the cost Given

It is important to marketing danger of using social media for The helped have would Such an approach uence. social comprehensive overall build the brand’s they a problem, can quickly address If employees to dependent on using technology people too but SMM ﬁ ow, the the way an issue resolve necessarily don’t need to . You Post center. contact with CRM and the Integrate support. customer your Market responses. Prioritize a robot. for Don’t be mistaken respond. Selectively Don’t overcommit. Go with speed. ngton

and tool management (CRM) relationship customer in your a customer 21

Social media is a customers. to listen enough time to while not allowing but it should not be going forward, strategy companies’ part of most key the lynchpin. leave is that it may socialize to in order joined these networks have they complain; to there be humanized must online presence As such, your with other people. has their social media of social media tools, a maker HootSuite, as well. and have themselves introduce owners able to are if you effective can be more interactions 7. 6. to Social Media Avaya’s example, For assignment. work consistent provide mentions, feeding all brand for Manager (SMM) acts as an analytical funnel agents. Not only does this center contact to directly the actionable items workfl the improve 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. However, handle contacts. agents to center of their contact a few target listen to ready are you unless a social media presence don’t establish a single to didn’t respond percent 56 50 brands, Of the top and respond. on Twitter. unresponsive were 71 and percent on Facebook comment disaster. a public relations becoming from the complaint can prevent to Rather than waiting should create team center the contact media strategy, users can show When you complaints. to respond just value—don’t your as brand your establish it helps to a problem, have turn if they to where of its customers. care one that takes quickly. should be addressed or customer analyst A one-off complaint a response. mention and decide if it warrants brand a does not deserve store retail in a company’s about the temperature negative legitimate a However, response. Huffi them. do is ignore cannot but what you it resolved, wants customer 13 hours wait to had writer, Gorman, a travel when Jayne British Airways for an article on the experience write leading her to a response, for if the user is an determine prioritizing is to to churn, one approach use the is to Another approach or her. on him and focus customer existing of social infl level person’s and historical real-time action while also providing that don’t require capabilities. reporting 44997.indd 44997.indd 21 CASE STUDY AVAYA POWERS BC HYDRO WITH AVAYA AURA® COMMUNICATION MANAGER

Providing energy to 1.8 million British Columbians, Crown Corporation turns to Avaya to update aging telephone infrastructure.

The Beneﬁ ts Products: Enable mobile employees to be reached anytime, – Avaya Aura® Communication anywhere. Manager Flexible, easy “hot desking.” – Avaya Aura® Session Manager Easier, lower-cost management. Hydro When someone in British Columbia starts So when the technology support service BC their day with a coffee and the morning offered on BC Hydro’s existing Nortel

Study: news, they’re not just turning on the coffee phone system was coming to an end, the maker and the television; they’re turning team knew they had an important choice Case to BC Hydro to provide the energy that to make: Replace their 15-year-old system powers their daily lives. Operating 57,648 entirely and install a new one from the CHALLENGE kilometers of distribution lines and 900,000 ground up, or upgrade and migrate to a utility poles, BC Hydro serves 1.8 million more current platform. THE customers—most of whom only realize Communications “There is no doubt, we were facing

ed how essential the service is when a power challenges,” says Adam French,

Uniﬁ interruption occurs. telecommunications delivery manager of A vital part of running BC Hydro’s BC Hydro. “We knew that our system was 22 operations safely and efﬁ ciently for quickly reaching the end of its life cycle, and customers is a reliable telephone system to we had to implement a solution that would facilitate communications throughout the be cost-effective while improving our ability entire organization—from Prince Rupert to provide British Columbia residents with down to Penticton. exceptional service.” Innovations Avaya

44997.indd 22 3/22/13 6:38 PM Unifi ed Communications Case Study: BC Hydro Issue 1 • 2013 23 3/22/136:383/22/13 6:38 PM PM is providing its is providing with a employees level whole new telephone system system telephone and exibility of fl BC Hydro’s new new BC Hydro’s a result As mobility. In just a short time, a short time, In just of implementing Avaya of implementing Avaya Aura Communication Communication Aura Flexibility Flexibility Manager, workers are are workers Manager, more effi cient and happier effi more system as needed. as system now that they can take their can take that they now BC Hydro’s new telephone telephone new BC Hydro’s calls anywhere, anytime. calls anywhere, for IT to relocate people in relocate IT to for The Avaya solution makes it very easy easy it very solution makes Avaya The “We’ve received lots of positive feedback feedback lots of positive received “We’ve from employees about the features of our new system, and system, of our new about the features employees from sync ability to “The French. says do,” them to what it allows laptop, phone and your cell your phone to desk up your of our many wish, has offered you calls however and take employees more freedom—especially those in the fi eld. those in the fi freedom—especially more employees anymore.” one particular device just not tied to They’re ciency Effi resources is also allowing phone system new BC Hydro’s ciency, effi Because of the system’s use. better to be put to and operations. its IT processes streamlined has BC Hydro manage the phone system to employees ve fi take “It used to says job,” a two-person it’s now before; had in place we been able to “Members of our IT department have French. than what we system a much better It’s on other areas. focus deal easier.” had, and it has made our jobs a great UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS UNIFIED

® Session Manager, which Manager, Session ® “We’ve received lots of positive feedback from employees about the features of our about the features employees from feedback lots of positive received “We’ve desk phone to up your sync The ability to do. them to and what it allows system new of many wish, has offered you calls however and take laptop, and your phone cell your one just not tied to They’re eld. those in the fi freedom—especially more our employees anymore.” particular device BC Hydro Manager, Delivery Telecommunications French, —Adam Benefi ts Benefi Simplicity with a substantial company is a large Because BC Hydro the for is a reality movement employee workforce, ensure the IT department must Consequently, organization. with company and contractors full-time staff that 6,000 system. the telephone to access working reliable phones have all changes and program had to we “On the old platform, the move physically desk to a person’s to send a technician French. says locations,” switching phone if the person was desks easily without us; all can move our employees “Now desk, the phone at their new do is log in to need to they were they at the extension accessible still and they’re originally assigned.” creates a geographically redundant call server in call server redundant a geographically creates primary data center. BC Hydro’s exibility the fl employees BC Hydro gives SIP system The follow extension ce their phone number and offi have to in the can be reached Employees go. they them wherever VoIP on their desk phones or on the go through ce offi and mobile devices. their laptops on softphones available our IT how transformed really has system “Avaya’s says business,” department—and BC Hydro—conducts our time and manage better us to has allowed “Avaya French. competencies.” on other core focus Solution Hydro BC priority, a top cost-effectiveness With time using over system their existing upgrade chose to Aura Avaya solution, telephony world-class Avaya’s Communication Manager. Manager. Communication Manager is an Communication Aura Avaya that platform IP telephony open, extensible a Session as an IP PBX, can be deployed or a environment, (SIP)-only Initiation Protocol that supports both SIP platform hybrid and non-SIP environments. phone lines at 10,000 than more Switching the heart of the is no small task. At 200 sites Aura solution is Avaya 44997.indd44997.indd 23 23 44997.indd 24 44997.indd 24

Avaya Innovations Video Case Study: Renown Health CASE STUDY

24 A nationallyrecognized Rehabilitation (CDCR) facilities. including two California Department ofCorrections and of northernNevada, Lake Tahoe, andnortheast California, Based inReno, Renown serves a17-county region comprised network andanationallyrecognized healthcare leader. Renown Health isnorthernNevada’s largest integrated health Background conferencing solutions. urban specialists. Rural physicians receive training from and follow-up appointments. need to Patients save timeandmoney by reducing the knowledge andexpertise ofurbanspecialists. care provider whilebeneﬁ Rural patientsreceive care from theirprimary The Beneﬁ Products: – – –

Scopia Scopia Scopia improves thepatient with Scopia drives down costs travel to healthcare leader ® ® ® VC240 PathFinder Elite

ts experience and 5230 urbanfacilities for treatment Executive MCU Firewall tting from the ® video Desktop Traversal Systems

CONFERENCING SOLUTIONS AVAYA SCOPIA TELEMEDICINE CAREWITH RENOWN HEALTH DELIVERS

– – – in outlyingareas. Reno to R-TeleMed, enablinghighlyskilledphysician specialists in order to succeed. Together, they developed aprogram called buy-in andinvestment from anumberofstakeholders in The telemedicine network envisioned by Gillisrequired medical care to initiative to the region. Inearly 2011,Renown launched atelemedicine healthcare programs for underserved patientpopulationsin Kirk GillisjoinedRenown Healthin2007 to develop new and hadthepotential to medical condition. Italsocauseddelays inthedelivery ofcare symptoms associated withanacute, stress to travel to urbancenters ofexcellence. This causedundue access Because theregion hasahighlydispersedrural population,

Peripherals Enovate XT1200 Telemedicine andincurred costs for patientsalready dealingwith to consult ontheevaluation andtreatment ofpatients medicalspecialists previously required patients systems affordably andeffectively deliver high-quality telemedicine from patientsinrural healthcare communities. solution ® VIDEO GlobalMed negatively impactpatientoutcomes. cart incorporating chronic, and/or complex Scopia ®

3/22/13 6:38PM

6:38 PM Video Case Study: Renown Health Issue 1 • 2013 25 3/22/136:383/22/13 6:38 PM PM VIDEO in-person visit.” just as naturally as an as naturally just our adds, “And Muetze result is a visit that ﬂ ows ows a visit that ﬂ is result We works. program conferencing. The The conferencing. had a doctor recently a patient via video say the program to new when we want to examine examine to want when we as as effective the visit was no confusion on either side on either side no confusion if the patient had been in the same room sitting across the sitting across same room goes smoothly and there’s there’s goes smoothly and table from him. The audio and audio and him. The table from a stethoscope) so that the visit a stethoscope) video quality is crystal clear, which clear, video quality is crystal to effectively use peripherals (e.g., (e.g., use peripherals effectively to enables a very natural interaction.” natural enables a very also train the rural practitioners on how on how practitioners the rural also train –R-TeleMed connects primary care primary care connects –R-TeleMed –If the patient’s condition requires –If requires condition the patient’s –Patients and primary care providers in providers –Patients primary care and

physicians with specialists, expanding services available available services expanding with specialists, physicians and physician primary care The in outlying communities. medical most diagnose and treat to together work specialist both for convenience improved while offering conditions, patients and physicians. of Care Continuity the capabilities of their local that exceeds treatment the can transfer physician the primary care community, who has been specialist the consulting to care patient’s continuity better allows This care. with the patient’s involved and expedites and delays, additional costs eliminates of care, and recovery. medical care the patient’s Privacy Protects That Network A Secure of are patient information Security and protecting encrypt Gillis, “We to According importance. the utmost One of the things that really privacy. protect all our data to with work their ability to was team out with the Avaya stood that both the in place—so security measures put extra us to above went They ultra-secure. and the endpoints are network but satisfy not only our requirements, to and beyond also CDCR’s.” The R-TeleMed program is designed with the “Three C’s” of C’s” the “Three is designed with program R-TeleMed The in mind. care Care Consultative highly skilled with can consult communities outlying rural diagnosis, with the evaluation, assist to specialists physician Most Reno. to travel needing to without and treatment be can conveniently care and follow-up testing diagnostic home community. in the patient’s completed Care Collaborative A Workable Solution for Everyone Solution for A Workable Video conferencing conferencing Video –Kirk Gillis, Vice President, –Kirk Gillis, Vice Health Renown plays a key role in our role a key plays and program, R-TeleMed of a fully the promise video, voice, integrated will and data offering simplify our IT decisions forward. moving

A Different Way of Delivering Quality Care Quality of Delivering Way A Different but new, video is not necessarily over healthcare Delivering is a there before, not used telemedicine those who have for learning curve. IT an Muetze, Toni says not simply ‘medicine as usual,’” “It’s our patients help our clinicians and “We manager. project visit. We in a telemedicine involved the etiquette understand Renown set out to fi nd a solution that was was that solution a nd fi set out to Renown and also interoperable cost-effective telemedicine existing with the region’s solutions evaluated They infrastructure. a number of video conferencing from (Tandberg) including Cisco vendors “The Gillis, to According and Polycom. the biggest delivered solution Avaya that Gillis says the buck.” bang for quick a and ciency effi offered Avaya on investment. return rapidly. is expanding program The has a goal of adding three Renown and three communities healthcare rural 90 every program the to urban specialists it is currently years; two the next over days healthcare goal of 25 rural its reach to on track and 35 urban medical specialties. communities in facilities correctional with two consults Because Renown R-TeleMed for platform the telemedicine California, northeast Avaya systems. existing with CDCR’s interoperate had to video, standards-based with all full interoperability offers CDCR’s it without jeopardizing deploy to enabling Renown investments. existing Affordable, Interoperable Interoperable Affordable, Growth Poised for Telemedicine 44997.indd44997.indd 25 25 Looking Forward As Renown Health expands the R-TeleMed program, they are looking into adding mobile video conferencing so that urban specialists can provide care regardless of location—for example on their iPads when they are moving about in The Avaya solution a hospital environment. In the meantime, Renown is improving access to care for patients throughout their delivered the biggest regional service area. bang for the buck. Gillis says, “The goal of our program is about improving access, quality and healthcare costs in rural communities. We don’t generate revenue from the program itself, but of – Kirk Gillis, Vice President, course we aim to provide the best possible care. When our Renown Health rural patients require treatment only offered in an urban healthcare community, we want them to choose Reno and Renown Health.”

• U.K. MEDICAL PRACTICE TRANSFORMS CONTACT • NONPROFIT BOOSTS SERVICES WITH CENTER WITH IP OFFICE AVAYA IP OFFICE, PARTNER For Frome Medical Group, deploying Avaya IP Offi ce FamilyMeans deploys call reporting software NEWS 500 with the aid of Avaya channel partner IPOffi ce Ltd from Avaya DevConnect Technology Partner Xima has improved communication with its 37,000 patients. Software to analyze its calls. That’s boosted the Callers to the new contact center get their calls agency’s customer satisfaction, cut staff costs, and answered and appointments made more quickly. helped FamilyMeans save a signifi cant donation, too!

CUSTOMER • DUTCH UNIVERSITY REPLACES CISCO SYSTEM • STRONG, STABLE NETWORK UNDERPINS SYDNEY WITH AVAYA AURA® ADVENTIST HOSPITAL The Hogeschool van Amsterdam, also known as The busy Australian healthcare organization upgraded the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, has its network to Avaya technology, including Avaya replaced its Cisco communication system with Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8600, Avaya Virtual Private Aura for its 3,000 employees. The Hogeschool will also Network Gateway 3050, and Avaya Virtual Services deploy Avaya’s contact center software. Platform (VSP) 9000 core switches.

• U.S. CITY CUTS COSTS, IMPROVES SERVICES WITH • TOP 5 GLOBAL ENERGY TRADER USES AVAYA AVAYA NETWORK AURA® SIP TECHNOLOGY

Health The city of Taylor, Michigan has adopted a new A leading energy trading ﬁ rm is using the iTurret IP Avaya data network that slashes maintenance costs telephony solution from Avaya DevConnect Technology and boosts services to city workers and residents. Partner Speakerbus. iTurret is tightly integrated Renown Fourteen city buildings are now linked in a secure, with the Avaya technology, including Avaya Aura® reliable campus data network enabled by Avaya SIP Enablement Services, Avaya Aura Application

Study: Ethernet Routing Switch 5000 Series, 4000 Series, Enablement Services, and Avaya S8300 Server with and 3000 Series, and Avaya Wireless LAN 8100 Series. G450 Media Gateway. Installed in four months across Case Four Avaya IP Ofﬁ ce systems are linked to form a three locations, the solution has “exceeded” the seamless, collaborative communications infrastructure. customer’s expectations. Video A Fax over IP application from MultiTech, an Avaya Learn more: Avaya.com DevConnect Technology Partner, also allowed Taylor to eliminate a mountain of fax machines and the phone 26 lines supporting them. Innovations Avaya

44997.indd 26 3/22/13 6:38 PM How-To Issue 1 • 2013 27 3/22/136:383/22/13 6:38 PM PM Not This is very is very This

To support a To

HOW-TO While room systems are generally generally are systems While room nformation workers are often called into into called often are workers nformation Continuous presence multipoint calls. presence Continuous Encryption. I Support for both scheduled and ad hoc both scheduled Support for conferences. personal systems used in a scheduled environment, launch ad hoc or being used to increasingly are calls. reservationless capabilities. and streaming Recording architecture. Superior infrastructure should system the conferencing deployment, worldwide that supports distributed be based on an IP architecture management. and remote redundancy, deployments, is highly desirable. directories with corporate Interfacing meetings at non-regular hours with others who meetings at non-regular to Being able away. time zones be many may media is home with encrypted from conference an important consideration. important for team, staff, and department meetings. With and department meetings. With staff, team, important for calls presence that supports continuous an infrastructure all the participants Squares”), dubbed “Hollywood (often at all times. This their video displayed can have generally than voice-activated natural meetings seem more makes seen. can be speaker only the current where switching any for is essential presence continuous Support for endpoints. than two more meeting involving everyone can attend every meeting at the scheduled meeting at the scheduled every can attend everyone be played to enable archives sessions Recording time. individuals. to back at times and locations convenient 7. 9. 10. 6. 7. 8. In addition to these “technical” factors, Wainhouse Research Research Wainhouse factors, these “technical” In addition to If scale is also a critical factor. that deployment believes video-enabled users can call only a small number of their then video of devices), number only a limited (or colleagues and mode, communications a mainstream become will never Metcalfe’s be achieved. ts will never of benefi the full range is dependent of the network that the value which states Law, on the number of endpoints, is highly applicable in the case video to Limiting desktop of personal video conferencing. to visual communications small numbers of users relegates and is an pervasive, becoming usage from prevents a silo, limiting success. in important factor and senior partner at is an analyst Davis W. Andrew from a recent is an excerpt Research. This Wainhouse Avaya. paper sponsored by Research white Wainhouse rm research fi market Research is an independent Wainhouse ed communications in the unifi on critical issues focuses that like elds, including applications fi and rich media conferencing e-learning. and education distance 8. 9. 6. 10. HIGH AVAILABILITY HIGH Everyone Everyone

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In order to support internal support internal to In order ainhouse Research has identifi ed several product or product ed several identifi has ainhouse Research choosing and to key elements that are technology rooms, both inside and outside any enterprise, are are enterprise, both inside and outside any rooms, Cisco, from systems room video-enabled with H.323/SIP personal and others. It is important that any Polycom, with these communicate is able to deployed system data/content-sharing. and video, voice, for systems that status. all who enjoy to adds value Interoperability Interoperability with industry-standard room room with industry-standard Interoperability systems. video conferencing High-defi video. nition (HD) High-defi Anywhere, anytime conferencing. anytime Anywhere, “anywhere, conferencing, “anyone” possible client makes virtual room an always-on by served is best anytime” Other important features offering. (meet-me bridge) rewall and fi (NAT) translation address include network supported conferencing and click-to-connect traversal client downloads. automatic by Freely distributed client that is supported on a supported client that is distributed Freely of devices. wide variety calls as well as calls to customers, external partners, and external customers, as calls to calls as well distributed suppliers, a video solution should be freely Mac OS, iOS, and Android on Windows, and available be able solution also needs to at a minimum. The devices own Bring your when necessary. rewalls fi traverse to considered and any of life a fact is now (BYOD) device this trend. solution should accommodate Ease of use and ultra-high reliability. Ease of use and ultra-high from senior staff to knowledge workers like product product like workers knowledge to senior staff from were that if a solution managers understands marketing not it would and highly reliable, obvious not intuitively or sales situations sensitive For permanently. be adopted solution simply has to conferencing B2B calls, a video for enterprise Most time. every work and has to work, with the virtual meeting familiar are today professionals Any a virtual meeting room. calling in to paradigm: room solution should support this video conferencing new mode. familiar introduced nearly everyone to the benefi ts of HD (720p) ts of HD (720p) the benefi to nearly everyone introduced collaboration want today workers Knowledge video. video quality and that ce that do not sacrifi sessions for substitute to communications enable remote meetings. physical Andrew W. Davis W. Andrew TEN STEPS TO MAKING PERSONAL VIDEO CONFERENCING SUCCEED AT YOUR COMPANY, COMPANY, YOUR AT SUCCEED VIDEO CONFERENCING MAKING PERSONAL TO TEN STEPS RESEARCH WAINHOUSE TO ACCORDING 4. 5. 3. 2. 1. deploying a personal video conferencing solution. Keeping solution. Keeping a personal video conferencing deploying the avoid enterprise in mind will help any these factors video conferencing personal (wherein of the past failures probability the customer’s hold) and will enhance took never outcomes. desired of reaching 1. HIGH-DEF By: W 2. 3. 5. 4. 44997.indd44997.indd 27 27 44997_Revise.indd 3 44997_Revise.indd 3

AvayaAvaya |Innovations Q3 HeadCover On Story - Research & Development COVER STORY MEAN LEAN, By: the FutureofHowWeWork Avaya LabsResearchIsInventing MACHINE RESEARCH

3 EricLai A commercial vendorsenvious. many largeruniversities and at aratethatwouldmake papers andwinningpatents above itsweight,publishing has consistentlypunchedwell years ago,AvayaLabsResearch Tokyo. Yet,sinceitsfounding12 Valley; Cambridge,England;or high-tech hotspotsofSilicon headquarters, farfromthe Avaya’s suburbanNewJersey 50-person teamisbasedin R&D divisionofAT&T.Itssmall than BellLabs,originallythe runs differently—andbetter— extol thewaysthatAvayaLabs of itsstarresearchersopenly Labs. Yet,itsfounderandmany drawn fromtherenownedBell many ofitsscientists—were in contradictions.Itsroots—and vaya LabsResearchisastudy 3/26/13 4:36PM

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Cover Story: Research & Development Issue 1 • 2013 4:36

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3/26/13 3/26/13 4:36 PM Lorraine Denby, Jean Meloche, and other Avaya Labs scientists engineers, with Avaya developed an application Akyamac, along es the that was able effective. Karacali- to diagnose IP in one place to be telephony problems provide all the data cient “packet sniffers” existing tools would not without using conventional, telephony started to take off, less-efﬁ This exempliﬁ of the Labs: orientation practical innovation conducted by some in of the top minds the world as they on keep their eyes the the prize—solving of real-world problems business collaboration. hihhhihihhhhhh tttt and server software. This application morphed into ExpertNet™, which even today is used alone or by Avaya’s Professional Services team to optimize audio and video performance on a network. More recently, Karacali-Akyamac has created an app for analyzing video chat quality for mobile devices or PCs. The app analyzes the movement in the faces of the participants and estimates the video delay between them. Karacali- Akyamac says her prototype has already proven itself accurate under a wide variety of simulated conditions. Such a lightweight, real-time tool for analyzing video quality could help ensure that Avaya’s desktop and mobile video conferencing products deliver an enterprise-class experience superior to consumer apps like Skype and FaceTime. creating an application for analyzing how ready an enterprise’s network is for adopting IP telephony. According to her boss, Data Analysis Team Director Jim Landwehr, Avaya Labs’ researchers realized that as IP etetetet SSSSSSSS

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is the result of the icting goals mobile video ed communications, Power in the People A noted computer scientist with a Ph.D. from Princeton University, Sethi is a 24-year veteran of Bell Labs who rose to head one of its three research divisions during the 1990s. When Sethi joined Avaya in 2000 to create Avaya Labs Research, he had some fi what he wanted to change about the Bell Labs model and what he wanted to keep. One thing he insisted on keeping was quality people. 70 percent of Avaya Labs’ staff have Ph.D.s. Two-thirds actually started their careers at Bell Labs before being wooed by Sethi to join Avaya Labs, which organizationally sits in the Applications and Emerging Technologies division led by Senior Vice President Brett Shockley. Sethi also had fi culture. “Much of the old Bell Labs didn’t have experience in how new technology got to product. Their priorities were in other areas,” says Val Matula, Avaya Labs’ head of multimedia perhaps the And here is biggest contradiction Labs: about Avaya at Despite excelling these traditional measures of research productivity, Avaya Labs’ founder and longtime president, Ravi Sethi, insists that his team be judged by an additional metric: how much their advances research creates and Avaya’s products. By that measure, Avaya Labs has also performed exceedingly well. Many of Avaya’s most cutting-edge products in the areas of social media, analytics, unifi conferencing, and network diagnostics owe their genesis to Avaya Labs. Achieving these disparate, almost- confl pragmatic, collaborative culture that Sethi has created. “We’ve got world- class people and we’re attuned to the company’s needs,” he says. 44997_Revise.indd 44997_Revise.indd 4 WHERE ELSE We measure our success INNOVATION not by idea generation, but LIVES AT AVAYA by ideas that make it all the &D isn’t limited to Avaya Labs. way through the pipeline to All told, Avaya employs 3,000 Rengineers globally. The best and customers. We didn’t do this brightest engineers are honored with the title Distinguished Engineer. The most at Bell Labs. recent 2012 class of seven Distinguished Engineers accounts for more than 267 U.S. and international patents and –Ravi Sethi, President, Avaya Labs Research patent fi lings.

Avaya also has specialized R&D teams. Take the VIPER (VoIP Exploit Research) Lab (viperlab.net). Acquired One SIP at a Time Creates an Ocean with the purchase of Sipera Systems in 2011, VIPER’s of Acceptance researchers are well known for their communications Avaya Labs’ output has also changed Avaya’s product threat expertise as well as the tools they offer for road map or strategy. Take Session Initiation Protocol, detecting hacks and malware directed at UC systems. or SIP, the digital protocol for transmitting voice, video, That has enabled VIPER to maintain its status and data on the same line. When as a well-respected, neutral member of the Avaya Labs researchers security community. fi rst demonstrated SIP in 2001, there were All told, Avaya invests nearly one-fi fth of its many skeptics product revenue on R&D—higher than most other within Avaya who, communications vendors (Microsoft and Cisco invest according to Matula, about 12 percent and 14 percent, respectively). It’s been a “did not view SIP good return on investment: Avaya released 57 internally as the wave of developed products in 2012. As a multinational company, the future.” much of this R&D is taking place outside of the U.S. In The SIP demos that India, where Avaya employs 800 engineers and scientists were put together by in Pune and Bangalore, the engineers have contributed Avaya Labs’ researchers signifi cantly to Avaya’s latest-generation products won the day. By 2004, such as Avaya Aura®, IP Offi ce, and contact center and Avaya had launched its fi rst networking gear. “They pretty much touch the entire SIP products. Today, virtually all gamut of our portfolio,” says Ram Kashi, research director its modern communications products are based on SIP. for Avaya Labs in India. In another instance, Avaya Labs helped save the Indian engineers and researchers are also working company tens of millions of dollars. VoiceXML is a

Development on cutting-edge problems. For instance, Avaya Labs standardized scripting language now used by many & automated interactive voice response (IVR) software researchers in India have built working prototypes of solutions to interpret spoken words and commands. communications and call center applications using a Avaya didn’t have any VoiceXML technology at one next-generation technology called WebRTC, says Kashi. Research point, and according to Sethi, senior leaders were These apps run through a Web browser and are both evaluating possible acquisitions. Starting with free, easier for developers to build and easier for end users Story: open-source software, Avaya Labs quickly put together to access and use, he says. a VoiceXML system that it demonstrated to executives, Cover proving that they could build a working system quickly Like Avaya Labs in the U.S., researchers are also driven and inexpensively in-house. by practical problems. At the request of a customer, 30 researchers have built a “Priority Paging Engine” to Keeping the Patent Offi ce Busy quickly send/receive high-priority audio to preset While Avaya Labs may be less pure “R” and more a groups of employees. They are also working on ways pragmatic blend of R&D, there is still plenty of basic to make Avaya communications software and phones research being done. Collectively, Labs researchers easier to use for users with visual, speech, or physical have fi led for more than 500 patents, with individual impediments, such as boosting audio quality on demand Innovations Innovations researchers like Dorée Duncan Seligmann having fi led and providing different input methods. “We like to fi nd Avaya Avaya pain points that we can address,” Kashi says.

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Cover Story: Research & Development Issue 1 • 2013 6:38

3131 nn 3/22/13 3/22/13 6:38 PM ma ig eel SS eld for anan ncnc is also well DuDu e ts its sample ré DDo he helped the Labs, where of millions of Tens ” in 1973. p students— and MBA business including this writer—have how assess to used the formula C a model ﬁ well “Mallows’ the formula inventing within his ﬁ known is best data. But Mallows than 200 papers. Mallows more in the 1990s his work for known in 1953, has published of London at AT&T the University from in statistics Ph.D. post- enforce government federal with his English émigré, who graduated laws. deregulation telecommunications The Mallows. Colin can match But few profession’s He is a winner of the statistics Memorial Award. the Wilks honor, top aaaaaa engineering researchers. among software lalalalalalallalalalalala uuuu tuttutututututtutututututu a ninth ranked was quality, on software Labs expert MMMaMaMaMaMaMaMMaMMaMaMaMaMaMMMaMMaMM Halloween (on AT&T from retired Mallows after day The eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee nnn 82, Labs on a part-time basis. Now 2000), he joined Avaya and, in his words, as a researcher year is in his 57th Mallows going strong.” “still inininininini t ntntntntntntntnntntnn eeeeeeeee lelelele aaaaa

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in the U.S. 47 than 100 (and been granted more for one enabling recent including her most alone, social monitor agents to center contact Facebook). media like on focused Others have Systems publishing. Networked Anjur Director Research and Data Krishnakumar Jim Director Team Analysis authored have Landwehr 45 and 60 journal articles, respectively. Sethi himself has published a while running major textbook Labs. To Avaya than 50 published more and is papers and textbooks Fellow. an ACM In has been noted. productivity Their an inﬂ published in The engineering institutions software ﬂ Machinery’s of Computing Association (CACM) of the ACM Communications or government) (non-university among all commercial second more which employs only IBM Research, trailing institutions, an Avaya Mockus, and engineers. Audris scientists than 3,000 44997.indd 44997.indd 31 44997_Revise.indd 5 44997_Revise.indd 532

Avaya Innovations Cover Story: Research & Development background informationrelevanttoapersonorevent. threads, internaldocumentrepositories,andtheWebtoprovide of relevantdocumentswhenaco-workercalls,ormineemail collaboration softwaretoautomaticallyopenthelatestversions “What’s TheBigIdea?”onp.6).Awarenessengineswillenable presence informationthatisthestateofarttoday(see Called “awareness,”thistechnologyleapfrogspastthepassive a personalassistant—actuallyabletopredictwhatusersneed. in tryingtomakesoftwarenotonlyeasieruse,but—muchlike From thebeginning,AvayaLabsteamhasbeenatrailblazer center agents. comments withthemosturgentneedforresponsesbycontact Facebook, andblogstofi Manager smartlysiftsthroughmillionsofpostsonTwitter, end withbigdata-styleanalyticsonthebackend,SocialMedia Media Manager.Combiningsocialmediasmartsonthefront That earlyresearcheventuallyspawnedtoday’sAvayaSocial contact center.” communications intoFacebook,andbringFacebooktoyour 2006 to,inSeligmann’swords,“showyoucouldbringunifi Reinhard Klemm,theybuiltaphoneappintoFacebookin directs theLabs’collaborativeapplicationsteam.Ledby for business,”saysSeligmann,anotherBellLabsveteranwho to accelerateanalysisofrecorded conversations,whether Ajita John,MikeSammon,and Klemm,areexploringhow the fast-changingcollaborationfi Columbia) helpsherandteamstayonthecuttingedge of several yearsbeforeearningherPh.D.incomputerscience at anthropology atHarvardandworkedasatheaterdirectorfor Seligmann’s non-traditionalbackground(shestudied What theFutureHolds even backin2005thatFacebookwasgoingtobeimportant

5 Another exampleisinsocialmedia.“Weknew service” possible. nd thecustomercomplaints and to “over-the-countercustomer provides theclosestthing eld. Herteammembers, which, inMatula’swords, Touch Videosolution, to Avaya’scurrentOne video. Thatleddirectly with customersby agents toeasilychat contact center how toenable demonstrating Ahead of team was 2006, Matula’s the Curve too. Asearlyas trendy areas, innovated in has quietly Avaya Labs ed Jo e Ha a lll l 3/26/13 4:37PM

4:37 PM PM

Cover Story: Research & Development Issue 1 • 2013 4:40

633

3/26/13 3/26/13 4:40 PM es the orientation of the Labs, though: practical

as ndings from their audio and video calls as easily individuals can search the Web with Google today. More traditionally, Avaya Labs is also working on smart directional microphones that pick up only the sound of the voice of a single contact center agent, rather than conversations from nearby agents. These could replace expensive, breakable headsets for contact center agents. Agent headsets cost $100 and up; when used in a call center setting, they need to be replaced once or twice a year. That exempliﬁ innovation conducted by some of the top minds in the world as they keep their eyes on the prize—solving the real-world problems of business. “We don’t do any ‘Big Bang Theory’ type of research here,” Matula says. “There are few speculative projects unrelated in some way to communications. Instead, we focus on where we can move the needle.” The goal is to give businesses the ability to search and glean ﬁ tool Network performance agents engage smartly Lets contact center via Facebook, Twitter with customers channels Organizes multiple communication for contact center users easily tag, SmartConferencing feature lets video search, and play back audio and Avaya’s most powerful, easiest-to-use phones today SIP roadmap Developed foundation for Avaya’s to video chat Enables contact center agents with customers to assess Used by Avaya Professional Services a year 1,000+ enterprise customers IT DOES WHAT

video search, and how to give consumers easier access to customer service via widgets embedded in the social can improve audio and networks that they use. interactive 3-D multimedia Data analysis researchers such as Lorraine Denby, Wen-Hua Ju, and Pat Tendick are linking analysis of recorded customer service phone calls with the rrr Experience Portal Conferencing hrhrhrhhr gure out what agents are doing right—and ® ® e tracking of the speed and outcomes of those wewewewwwwewewewew

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mmm m mmmmm mmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmm JJJJJiJiJiJJJJJJJJJJJJ EVAT (VoIP network assessment) SES (SIP Enablement Services) Avaya One Touch Video Avaya Aura 9600 SIP phones and one-X Avaya Aura SLA Monitor Social Media Manager who may need more training. And they are trying to do this analysis in as close to real time as possible. “You see the phrase ‘big data’ being thrown around all over the place. We do that, too, but we want to put it in context, so you don’t have to end up throwing hardware at a problem just to avoid getting lost in your data,” Landwehr says. calls in order to ﬁ Research’s Labs Avaya HITS BIGGEST PRODUCT 44997_Revise.indd 44997_Revise.indd 6 user quality site multichannel likes www. Twitter http:

business organize

Help contact success Social

Customer Service Experience online future feedback Media community care conﬁ dence Support

brand fans

loyalty message Internet

#HelpCustomersNow By: Anita Karvé

AS CUSTOMERS EMBRACE SOCIAL MEDIA LIKE TWITTER, SO SHOULD YOUR BUSINESS. IT’S THE PATH TO FASTER, MORE EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE MULTICHANNEL ERA.

Damart, a popular U.K. clothing brand, knows documents, and SMS texting. To help the hipsters, Experience quite a bit about delivering the warm and fuzzy: Damart also integrated the company’s social media It holds a dominant position in the thermal clothing channels (Facebook and Twitter) into its contact market. With more than 2 million customers in center. And the system doesn’t ignore the seniors:

Customer its database, Damart sends out an astounding Letters from customers are scanned and pushed to 90 million promotions and catalogs each year, agents, giving them a complete view of historic and

Trend: selling everything from outerwear to underwear. real-time customer information.

Catering to both the young and older buyer, Damart While customer experience has always been a 34 customer service faced a challenge. Younger priority for companies of all sizes and in every customers jockey for help online and through industry, the dynamics now are different. Used social media. Meanwhile, some of Damart’s senior to immediate gratiﬁ cation in other areas, today’s customers go “old school” and write letters. customers simply won’t wait for customer service. For the business, that means saying “the customer To solve this, Damart established a uniﬁ ed view is king” isn’t enough. To attract and retain Innovations contact center that enables communication by customers, businesses need to adopt modern phone, email, Web, instant messaging, fax, scanned communication channels. Avaya

44997.indd 34 3/22/13 6:38 PM TREND: CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The Meetup: Contact Center and Social Media Marketing and PR Once niche, social media has become a channel that businesses cannot afford to ignore. Like phone calls, social media messages can be routed to contact departments have center agents with the right skills. Communications coming from Twitter, Facebook, or company blogs can be delivered to agents with the same traditionally handled context as voice calls or emails. The latest contact management platforms can also capture additional information about the customer, including the number Twitter and Facebook of followers or friends and the sentiment—positive or negative—of a comment.

campaigns. But Marketing and PR departments have traditionally handled Twitter and Facebook campaigns. But bringing social media into the contact center bringing social media improves the customer experience in many ways. It ensures a timely response as well as consistent handling and responses by agents speciﬁ cally trained into the contact in the medium, both of which increase positive perception of the company. Contact center agents are also trained to respond to complaints and solve center improves the problems before negative comments spin out of control. And since contact center agents have access to customer histories and other data, they can customer experience deliver a more personal experience.

in many ways. Technologies have emerged to bring social media into the contact center. TweetDeck by Twitter can track tweets. Salesforce.com’s Radian6 is adept at monitoring blogs, forums, and some social networks. And Avaya Social Media Manager allows customer support representatives to engage directly through environments such as Facebook.

NOT ALL CHANNELS ARE EQUALLY ADOPTED BY CUSTOMERS Percentage of U.S. online adults by generation who have adopted online customer service channels

Younger Older Golden Gen Z Gen Y Gen X Boomers Boomers Generation (18–22) (23–31) (32–45) (46–55) (56–66) (67+) Telephoning a company and speaking to an agent 63% 68% 66% 67% 75% 68% Help or frequently asked questions (FAQs) on a company website 64% 64% 60% 57% 60% 50% Sending an email to customer service 55% 57% 56% 50% 54% 48% Instant messaging/online 47% 46% 40% 32% 29% 25%

chat with a live person Trend:

Click-to-call 37% 38% 29% 22% 21% 19% Customer

Online forum or community with other customers 41% 39% 30% 20% 16% 11% Experience Screen sharing 34% 34% 27% 20% 19% 16%

Virtual agent 36% 34% 27% 18% 14% 12%

Sending a mobile/SMS message to the company requesting assistance 34% 31% 22% 14% 10% 6%

Contacting a company using Twitter 31% 29% 22% 13% 10% 6% 35

Source: Forrester Research 2012. Issue 1

• 2013

44997.indd 35 3/22/13 6:38 PM The Customer Experience is Always Right and availability and who aren’t already overburdened with other tasks. This routing needs According to Forrester Research, customers want a to happen seamlessly and variety of communications methods when interacting quickly behind the scenes. with customer service. When asked how they had This must integrate with received customer service in the past 12 months, the single unifi ed agent almost 70 percent said over the phone, 60 percent Once niche, desktop that can used help or FAQs, 54 percent used email, handle all potential 37 percent used chat, 20 percent used texting, social media has interactions. and 19 percent used a microblogging platform. It’s also critical that Customers are also looking for immediate become a channel agents have access service. Forrester found that almost half of U.S. to the full context adults give up on an online order if they can’t fi nd that businesses of a customer’s answers to their questions quickly. cannot ignore. interaction with the Creating the Superior Customer Experience company. After all, there’s nothing more Despite these stark facts, many companies are still frustrating for a customer struggling to adjust. Others have adapted quickly. Take than getting transferred from online shoe retailer Zappos. Not only does the company person to person and having to offer fast and free shipping on all orders, it also pays for repeat why you are calling as well as your name and the shipping on all returns. And returns can be made other basic information. Related to this, agents need to up to one year from the date of purchase. In addition, be able to collaborate with other agents who may customers can click to be taken to a “TweetWall” where have more experience or knowledge about a they can see at a glance the products that are most particular situation. tweeted about. To accomplish this, companies should create an While the telephone remains the primary touch point architecture built on open standards such as Session for many customers, you simply can’t ignore social Initiation Protocol (SIP), which complies with service- media. A customer in an airport may tweet for help oriented architecture (SOA) standards and supports instead of making a phone call. Knowing that, JetBlue all Web-based standards. An open standards Airways went proactive with its support strategy. It architecture allows easier integration among the answers each tweet, letting the customer know that it telephony network, Web services, and back-offi ce hears them and is ready to help. applications, and gives agents the ability to deliver personalized service to all customers.

JetBlue Airways @JetBlue 11 Jan @KING_OF_RINGZ Sorry to hear you are having trouble. Taking Care of Customers Now and in the Future Anything we can do to help? Expand Customer service operations must grow with a business and change over time. The underlying technology must be scalable, without any performance The key to success is ensuring that contact center degradation issues. The technology also should cover agents have the tools to quickly resolve any issue, multiple sites and have a solid disaster recovery plan, regardless of where—or how—the plea for help arrives. so customers never hear a busy signal or a recording telling them their call can’t get through, or see an online Take Motiva. The San Diego-based company is a error message. 450-agent provider of customer service solutions Experience that operates a contact center in Mexico. Motiva’s As customer experience starts to affect stock prices new generation of contact center agents are very and overall brand perception, it’s more critical than comfortable with social media. Using Avaya contact ever to treat call centers and other customer-facing

Customer center technologies, Motiva agents can see a operations as an integral part of corporate strategy— customer’s phone calls, emails, chats, and social media and stay alert to how social media is reshaping the role

Trend: messages all in the same view—something that many of contact centers. Be prepared for this monumental agent desktops cannot do. This integration, according shift by understanding the available tools, identifying to CEO Higinio Sanchez, enables Motiva to “bring the conversations relevant to your organization, and 36 customer service to a whole new level.” including social media as an integral part of your customer contact strategy. The Right Route In a heterogeneous environment, help requests must be delivered quickly to agents with the appropriate skill set Innovations Avaya

44997.indd 36 3/22/13 6:38 PM PM

User Spotlight: Roland Rivera Issue 1 • 2013 6:38

3/22/13 3/22/13 6:38 PM

and

Systems on the fence Force

Space is convinced Rivera that such a deal, if written, properly “provide would our IAUG for value membership, and also value Avaya.” for quite it’s “Sure, he says. radical,” “But the University is of Washington a major research Air Washington and iaug.org of and Telecommunication Technology; CIO, of Directors Strategy University Center Director, Resource Commerce/Transportation of University more: . Learn Institute Air Washington; in of Board Network SPOTLIGHT USER Webster Assistant Florida Hours 127 B.S. Computer taking Conference CONVERGE2013 the IAUG Applications State IAUG in Director, is project The rollout and Aura-based Avaya about the UW’s Rivera ROLAND RIVERA Member, Experience: Technical Education: Title: Telecommunications, Services, Technology, Master’s Management, ambitious, very but the UW vision provide is to UW users with UC ubiquitous easy not always still it’s our size, despite yet university; imagine small or medium I would negotiating with Avaya. A master issues. contracting similar have enterprises that were that customers mean would agreement products Avaya more purchase to an incentive have now would do it.” easier to be far because it would to Talk at other topics will be speaker keynote Florida. The in Orlando, June 3–7 place the subject of the was whose survival the hiker Aron Ralston, book and movie

with

WAY the ® project platform (UC) communications ed Avaya discounted better, UC, whether from with ubiquitous PC, or desktop a mobile device, system,” a high-end conferencing Rivera. says

users provide the UW vision is to which began in deployment, The ambitious, but is very project “The communications create of the 2011 with the stabilization

features the full set of collaboration

STANDARDS ed

including video conferencing. is in call centers, mission-critical UW’s

also plans But the University as its foundation.

® His latest shining sea (Washington).

has Rivera Roland career, his nearly 30-year ver sea (Florida) from projects technology overseen to

Aura OPEN board the agenda of IAUG He says year. time last rst ‘provide would Avaya’ for value written, properly

that encompasses multimillion-dollar project a multiyear, that such a deal, if our IAUG for value Eric Lai is convinced Rivera 37

and also membership, and Microsoft—in Cisco, AVST, from use systems to uniﬁ Lync the Microsoft particular, client, which will have and infrastructure of end-site phase: the rollout its third users grant SIP-based handsets and softphones to new UC capabilities. of lieutenant with the rank who retired veteran An Air Force his ambitions from his service has shifted Rivera colonel, as the as well ed system higher Washington’s to country (IAUG). Users Group Avaya International 5,000-member times multiple deployment on the UW’s He has presented their and other higher ed institutions; audiences IAUG to modify has helped the UW continually feedback valuable and approach. its UC architecture for of directors the board to elected was Rivera Moreover, the ﬁ the to deep value really “provide himself is to members like with Avaya strategically as align ourselves members as well alignment includes better That and our channel partners.” with member needs, and and services products of Avaya partners to convincing task formidable more It also includes the programs. training IAUG between agreement service a master for of lobbying members and Avaya. Avaya

of the University ambitious: upgrading be his most may a modern, SIP-based to system aging telecom Washington’s for of services a variety providing system communications and staff. faculty 30,000 It’s a comprehensive is deploying team Rivera’s multiple vendors. uniﬁ new and secure O of Washington’s of the University core infrastructure. multivendor next-gen, Aura is making Avaya Rivera Roland By:

THE UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS 44997.indd 44997.indd 37 IS IT TIME FOR A PRIVATE Public cloud services CLOUD? have their faults. As more enterprises become aware of them, they are turning to private clouds to give them the best of both enterprise and consumer worlds.

By: Hanna Hurley

Primerica has carved out a thriving business by helping “Main Street” families invest in their future. Practicing what it preaches, the U.S. ﬁ nancial services provider recently invested in new back-end communications infrastructure, including an upgraded customer contact center running on top of a private cloud that connects Primerica’s headquarters and eight other locations. The private cloud allows Primerica to deliver voice, video, messaging, and conferencing services to 2,500 employees at lower operational cost and with less IT labor.

44997.indd 38 3/22/13 6:38 PM TREND: CLOUD

Temple University achieved similar goals when it switched cloud, it reported savings of $2.9 million in software licensing, its student technology center to a private cloud. The hardware, services, and support. GSA is estimating a $15 million 75,000-square-foot Teaching, Education, Collaboration savings over ﬁ ve years. and Help (TECH) Center is one of the largest university data centers in the United States with more than 700 computers; its applications and network services are powered through a private cloud. Temple ﬁ gures it saved $2 million on installation costs by choosing an Avaya-based private cloud. App delivery Which of the Following Are and management also becomes much less complicated in this now high-performance, future-proofed cloud network. the Key Challenges of Your Approach to Cloud Adoption? Five Advantages of Private Over Public Clouds Public cloud services like Amazon, Salesforce.com, and Total respondents (n=674) Dropbox have certainly gotten their share of hype in the past several years. But there’s a growing backlash against the public cloud as enterprise CIOs come to grips with the trade-offs around security, management, and compliance. According to a February 2013 survey by KPMG International, more 33%33% 31%31% than 30 percent of global IT leaders deploying public cloud infrastructures complained about deployment costs, integration issues, data loss, and privacy risks or loss of control. Implementation/ Integration with 24 percent of those surveyed by KPMG said legal transition/integration existing architecture and regulatory challenges of the public cloud costs too high were causing them to look into private clouds.

By moving IT services into the cloud, but keeping them behind the corporate ﬁ rewall, IT can adapt to business 30% 30% requirements and service requests more quickly—and protect and manage company assets. The Data loss and Loss of control advantages include: privacy risks

• The ability to virtualize and run multiple applications on the same server. That lets IT consolidate their data center, cutting IT costs and 26% 26%26% increasing agility.

• Faster deployment of new applications A lack of standards Lack of visibility and services. between cloud providers into future demand, (interoperability) associated costs • Seamless scalability and load balancing for maximum utilization of servers and other resources. • Control over who sees your data and where it is stored, allowing for greater compliance ease and auditing. • A more consistent and reliable quality of service for all 26%26% 21%21% users on any device.

More than half the respondents in an Open Data Center General Risk of intellectual Trend: Alliance survey said that they will be running more than security risks property theft 40 percent of their IT operations in a private cloud by 2015.1 Cloud According to Renub Research, organizations will increase their investment in private IT clouds by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.5 percent between 2011 and 2015.2 18% 18%18% Cost Savings—and More 39 Much of the interest in private clouds centers on cost savings. Issue For instance, the U.S. government has been a private cloud Legal and regulatory Transparency of Issue proponent for years and issued a “Cloud First” policy in compliance operational 1

controls and data • 2013 2010 requiring its agencies to choose the cloud whenever 2013 possible for any IT investments. After the General Services Administration (GSA) moved its email services to a private Source: KPMG International’s "Global cloud survey: The implementation challenge."

44997.indd 39 3/22/13 6:38 PM Templee Uniiveersrsitity sas veved $2$ miilllilionon by gogoinng too a prir vavatet cloudd.

But enterprises are fi nding Collaboration in the Cloud that they get cost savings What types of services or applications are best for the private By moving IT services and more from deploying cloud? You’ll need to perform an individual assessment of private clouds. into the cloud, but each collaboration tool in your environment to fi gure that out. keeping them behind According to a 2012 survey But keep these general characteristics in mind: by Forrester Consulting, • Email. Email is a mission-critical application with fl uctuating the corporate fi rewall, companies deploying workloads, but many enterprise email systems won’t perform private clouds actually well in the cloud; a redesign may be necessary. Still, this can IT can adapt to enjoyed “accelerated access be a worthwhile investment and email remains a popular to resources for test and business requirements target for private cloud deployment. development” and “greater and service requests IT team effi ciency” at a • Document sharing. If employees need to transfer and higher rate than they did more quickly—and collaborate on large fi les from far-fl ung locations, a private cost savings. cloud can support greater performance, reduce latency, protect and manage and add security. However, convincing users to switch away Doing Your Homework company assets. from their third-party tools can be daunting; communicate By being careful about proactively to initiate this culture change. security and moving only the right projects, enterprises can • Unifi ed communications (UC). UC, which generally achieve short- and long-term returns from their private clouds. includes all manner of conferencing (audio, video, Web), Keep in mind that moving to the cloud does require a change traditionally entails dedicated on-site hardware; this can be in strategy for the IT department, and the implementation transitioned into a private cloud. Benefi ts can include better must be planned well in advance. These four tips can help support for mobile workers, better management, and greater smooth the transition: utilization of resources.

1 Give your organization plenty of time to review server Finally, when assessing your applications, consider prioritizing requirements, upgrade bandwidth, and review regulatory them so that you can focus your initial effort on areas that and compliance policies. will provide the greatest value. You can defer less critical applications or those that require modernization for a second 2 Meet with business units to discuss their application deployment phase. Having one successful project moved to requirements and discover which apps are the best ﬁ t for a private cloud will ease the way for other applications and Cloud your private cloud platform. services to follow.

Trend: 3 Look for applications that have particularly challenging 1 Erin Harrison, “Cloud Adoption Rates Rise by 15 Percent: ODCA Survey,” availability requirements. The primary advantage of infoTECH Spotlight, September 11, 2012. cloud architecture is high availability, so when assessing 2 “Private Cloud Computing Market & Forecast to 2015: Worldwide 40 applications for their private cloud potential, a good Analysis,” MarketWatch.com, September 11, 2012. place to start is with existing service level agreements.

4 Identify workloads that are well-suited to a private cloud. The most common use cases include dev/test environments, websites, and high-performance computing. But you needn’t Innovations stop there. Collaboration applications are often an excellent ﬁ t for the cloud. Avaya

44997.indd 40 3/22/13 6:38 PM LAST CALL FAIL HARD Great Customer Service Isn’t Brain Surgery. The Plethora of Easy Fixes Is Why the Failures Are So Epic.

By: Elke Peterson

n the opening sequence of last year’s hit fi lm The Best Sounds easy enough. Yet, bring up customer service I Exotic Marigold Hotel, Judi Dench’s character is on the nightmares at your next dinner party, and people will phone with her Internet service provider, trying to make interrupt each other in their eagerness to share their a change to her account. After hearing the “your call horror story. is important to us” recording four times, Dench fi nally gets through to a service rep, who politely tells her that How Do You Spell That? Last Call: she cannot make any changes because the account isn’t Here’s the story I dine out on. When a friend of mine had in her name. When a stricken Dench reveals that the surgery, several of us chipped in on a big bouquet of account holder, her husband, has died, the rep simply fl owers which I ordered from an online service. The next Fail repeats her script, and refuses to help.

day, I learned that my friend had recovered so well that Hard he had left the hospital early and gone home. That, my friends, is an Epic Fail. Great news! But wait—the bouquet. Where was it? I Every day we experience half a dozen failures or called customer service. The line echoed and crackled. more. Most are small. We miss our freeway exit or the The rep’s accent conﬁ rmed my suspicions. I explained restaurant runs out of our favorite dessert. Some fails are 741 the situation in that special slow-and-loud tone I reserve bigger. What makes a fail “Epic” is the existence of an

for non-native English speakers on the other end of poor Issue 1 Easy Fix—and here I’m talking common-sense-ical, like phone connections. No problem, she said, I just need the straight-out-of-a-Dilbert-cartoon-easy—that could have new delivery address. •

avoided the whole mess. Sometimes people die. Reps 2013 need a script for that—a plan B—that preferably starts with, “I’m so sorry.”

44997_Revise.indd 7 3/26/13 4:41 PM Uh-oh. My friend lives on Hillegass The senior executive in the Me: (gritting teeth) Hi. My Street. I said it. She didn’t understand. I room was dubious. Just name is Elke Peterson. repeated. I spelled. She read it back, and the week before, My account number it was another word entirely, one that he’d clicked on a is ___. I would like didn’t start with H. I tried to remember chat link to ask a to cancel my the whole Alpha, Bravo thing they’re quick question. subscription. always using on TV, but got stuck on C, A message like a preschooler who only knows his appeared: the IVR: Certainly. letters in the order of the alphabet song. wait time for the Let me send next available rep you to “Ma’am?” the rep asked. “Ma’am, was 30 minutes. a customer are you still there?” service rep. Hmm. We are “Yes,” I said, thinking, H, as in … talking about live Rep: Hello, my hippopotamus? Helicopter? Hydrangea? chat, right? name is Jennifer Thompson. Can I My friend eventually got his bouquet, Amazingly, the exec get your name, account but it took another few minutes of waited for 22 minutes number, and reason stilted, anxious negotiation to avoid before he got fed up, went to a for calling? Epic Faildom. Hillegass isn’t even that competitor’s site, and bought what diffi cult. Imagine if I’d called from he needed there. Epic Fail for the fi rst Me: (pressing mute button) Amsterdam wanting to send fl owers to company. Lucky break for the second. YYYYYAAAARRRRGGGGHHH! Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal? As with all Epic Fails, there was an Easy At this point, I feel like the character Fix: scheduled callback. If the reps in the movie The Princess Bride who are busy, the system will let you, the repeatedly says, “Hello. My name is Inigo customer, pick a time convenient for you Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare What do you call the to get a call back. to die,” during his climactic duel with the villain in which he, despite his wounds, IVR system that forces It’s like ordering breakfast from room eventually triumphs. The difference me to repeat my name, service, but free. And here’s the best between me and Montoya is that while I thing: It makes customers feel like their also feel plenty beaten up by the end of account number, and call is important. these calls, I never feel like I’ve won.

issue over and over Hello. My Name Is Inigo Montoya. This is an Epic Fail. Today’s IVR systems could easily be confi gured again, despite the When I call customer service, I tend to to forward caller information with get the interactive voice response (IVR) obvious ease with other systems or reps, rather than system that’s confi gured to make me forcing all conversations to start from to repeat my name, account number, which it could share square one. Some IVR systems can and issue every time I’m routed to a even do Minority Report-esque things that information with new system or service rep, despite the like sense frustration levels and divert obvious ease with which it could share the right parties? FAIL. expletive-shouting (sword-wielding?) that information with those parties fi rst. customers to their own special queue before they explode. So what I’m asking Here’s an example: for should be Customer Experience IVR: Hello, thank you for calling Management 101.

Hard Of course, there was an Easy Fix: live Interslice Technologies. How can I help Get it together, customer service

Fail chat. Or SMS. She opens a window, or you today?

texts me. I type the word. She copies managers. Don’t make me say it again. Call: and pastes it. The contrast in time and Me: Um, hi. My name is Elke Peterson. My account number is ___. I would like Last effectiveness is night and day. to cancel my subscription. My Call Is How Important? 42 IVR: All right. Let me send you to Speaking of live chat, I was in a meeting that department. recently where the topic was whether to include live chat as a contact option on (Different Recorded Voice): Hello, thank a website. Case studies show that simply for you calling Interslice Technologies. having live chat increases conversion How can I help you today?

Innovations rates, whether customers use it or not. Avaya

44997.indd 42 3/22/13 6:38 PM CONTRIBUTORS

Jude Chao Hanna Hurley (“Go Go Video,” “SIP on This”) is (“Is It Time for a Private Cloud?”) is a San Diego-based tech journalist a partner at BaySide Media, which specializing in education and develops content for high-tech and enterprise. Her work frequently small businesses. When not writing, appears in UBM TechWeb she enjoys playing cello. publications.

Anita Karvé Carl Knerr (“The Contact Center (“Social Media: The Customer Goes Social”) is a freelance Service Megaphone”) is Director technology and telecom writer of Serviceability at Avaya. When and editor. Previously, she was not working out of his western managing editor at Billing & Massachusetts home, he’s enjoying local OSS World (B/OSS) magazine cuisine with his wife and three children. and Network magazine.

Elke Peterson Michael Runda (“Fail Hard”) is a freelance writer (““Avaya Support: Faster and More based in Oakland, California. Effective Than Ever”) is Senior Vice When she’s not on the phone with President and President of Avaya customer service, she’s usually Client Services. He previously typing about technology or teen led support for tech companies angst (not at the same time) and including Intuit, Symantec, trying to resist the Jedi mind tricks and Oracle. of her cat, Kirby. Jaime Schember (“Best of Blogs”) is Avaya’s Social Media Manager. When not overseeing Avaya’s presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, and Twitter, she cheers on Cleveland sports teams. Contributors

Issue 1

• 2013

44997.indd 43 3/22/13 6:38 PM Break out of the conference room Stay connected with easy video conferencing anywhere

44997.indd 44 3/22/13 6:38 PM