4 key highlights from Avaya CXO (Re) Connect

Global technology industry player Avaya recently gathered regional decision-makers for the Avaya CXO (Re) Connect, the first major in-person event hosted by the company in the Middle East and Africa region since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event saw industry leaders from sectors such as government, tourism and healthcare share lessons learned from the last 18 months, as well as their visions for a digital future.

Avaya CXO (Re) Connect also marked the first visit of the its global CEO and President Jim Chirico to Dubai since the pandemic hit. He co-hosted the evening alongside Avaya International’s President, Nidal Abou-Ltaif.

The evening culminated with Avaya presenting a special commendation to the leaders and staff of the Rashid Center for People of Determination, an organisation dedicated to assisting those with special needs, and which Avaya has supported with its technology in recent years.

“We talk about innovation and modernisation, and the UAE is one such leader when it comes to these points. The nation is also a pioneer when it comes to the human element of leadership. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the UAE’s support of Ashab Al Hamem – people of determination – and the efforts made by Rashid Center. We’re so proud to support them, and this commendation recognises the incredible contribution that they make to our society,” said Abou-Ltaif.

Discussions from the event led to a consensus that organisations need to work towards a future, where they can deliver better experiences to meet customers’ increasingly digital demands.

In case you missed the insight-packed Avaya CXO (Re) Connect, here are 4 key highlights that you should know:

Empowering a first-adopter culture

The evening opened with a sanguine keynote address from Jim Chirico. During which, he discussed how Avaya is constantly innovating to help enterprises across multiple sectors to transform and accelerate their business.

The Avaya chief also highlighted the importance of the Middle East region to their success, especially the UAE. He commended the UAE’s leadership and dedication to embracing digital transformation and fostering an innovation-conducive landscape.

“This region has been experiencing rapid digital transformation across key sectors for a number of years, and that trend has accelerated over the last 18 months. We have a major presence in the region and we’re proud to be supporting these efforts – these sectors are often at the cutting-edge of what’s possible with our technology. There’s a first-adopter culture here that aligns well with our vision,” he said.

Relentless commitment to innovation

Over the past year, Avaya’s growth momentum was unimpeded by the unprecedented challenges brought by the pandemic. The company has reported revenues of $738 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2021, which Chirico attributes to the strategic investments that the company has been making to reshape its offerings to be a leader in enterprise communications and collaboration.

“We continue to increase our investments year after year in high growth areas such as cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and contact centre technologies among others,” he said.

“We’ve done it with a customer-led mindset. Another key strategic focus for us is bringing our latest innovations to the market either organically or through our strategic partnerships with the likes of Google, Amazon and Salesforce. If you take a look at our revenue profile today, 40% of it comes from our cloud business, strategic partnerships and subscriptions. This is a crucial aspect of our strategy as it enables us to effectively help customers compete and win in today’s landscape.”

Driving experiences that matter

The Avaya CXO (Re) Connect audience also heard from Avaya International Vice President and CTO Ahmed Helmy. In his presentation, Helmy delved into how the AI-powered OneCloud platform helped enterprises maintain business continuity in the past year.

The Avaya OneCloud platform includes CCaaS, UCaaS and CPaaS, which are aimed at empowering an on-demand workforce and redefine customer experiences.

“It doesn’t matter where you are today in your digital transformation journey. Whether you’re on-premise, public or private cloud, or even in a hybrid cloud environment, Avaya can support you to navigate the path to digitalisation that best fits your needs. We are passionate about empowering customers to prepare for the digital future,” said Helmy.

Furthermore, the Avaya CTO also pointed out in the last 18 months, Avaya was able to seamlessly shift more than 2.5 million customer service agents to remote environments.

“Our aim was to shape a new way of working while maintaining the same level of customer excellence without compromising the agents’ health and safety,” said Helmy.

Ushering the digital future

The evening also included a panel discussion, featuring top Avaya customers from the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The high-level panel is comprised of Farid Farouq, Vice President, IT, Procurement and Contracts, Dubai World Trade Centre; Mansour Aldalaan, CEO, Contact Center Company (CCC) Saudi Arabia; Augustine Amusu, CIO, Mediclinic Middle East; and Mohammad Bin Sulaiman, CEO, Moro Hub.

All four panellists spoke about different challenges they faced during the past 18 months. They also shared their experiences on how they embraced digital technologies, including Avaya solutions, to adapt and evolve their businesses.

Mediclinic ME’s Augustine Amusu, said, “We’ve faced unique challenges in the healthcare industry, for obvious reasons. We were given a massive task of ensuring the continuity of care for our patients. It was a feat that we have to accomplish without failing as the consequences can be catastrophic. Digitalisation has helped us to cope, innovate, and maintain the delivery of high- quality services to our patients. It’s going to be a hybrid world going forward and it’s our job to serve our patients’ changing needs.”

Meanwhile, BPO player CCC’s Mansour Aldalaan shed light on how customers’ preferences have shifted to digital touchpoints over the course of the last 18 months. To address this need amid the pandemic, CCC with the help of Avaya technology, successfully moved thousands of contact centre agents to remote environments while still handling over 200,000 interactions per day on behalf of its customers. “Our partnership with Avaya means that we’re able to meet that demand and scale digital services as required,” he said.

DWTC’s Farid Farouq then highlighted how they are taking a significant step towards a more connected and digital-powered era through its partnership with Avaya. “We’re in the business of connecting people. In the midst of the pandemic, we knew that a ‘new normal’ is imminent. In recognition, we embraced the changes and accelerated our digital capabilities to address the needs of this new normal. Now that Dubai is opening up, those digital demands from our customers are just as prevalent, so we’re working with companies like Avaya to enable hybrid experiences.” 

Finally, Moro Hub’s Mohammad Bin Sulaiman discussed how organisations are now opting for subscription- and cloud-based technology models that enable them to rapidly roll out innovative services. “Together with Avaya, we’re helping both the government and private sector with their digital transformation. We enable them to successfully deploy multi-experience contact centres. Thanks to that cloud-based model, we’re able to power large-scale customer experience transformation projects with organisations like DEWA, who are setting the standard for the customer experience of the future.”