NewsUC&C5 May 2023 · 2 min read

Avaya CEO: ‘Our Partners Never Left Us’

Why Avaya’s channel reset matters: after restructuring, Avaya and RingCentral relaunch cloud sales with partners retaining the customer, including ACO and Exper

Chris Porter

Avaya CEO Alan Masarek has praised partners for not abandoning the vendor on its bumpy road to the cloud.

The vendor recently completed a financial restructuring and is now primed for another crack at the cloud transition, of which Masarek claims the channel will be vital.

It’s been suggested that Avaya’s cloud model was not fruitful for VAR and distributors owing to its agency model, which meant RingCentral owned the customer.

UC Today’s Editor in Chief David Dungay spoke exclusively to Masarek at Channel Partners in Las Vegas. Watch the Full interview here.

Despite this, Masarek told UC Today that Avaya’s partner base remained loyal and is now set to see considerable success through a new wholesale agreement with RingCentral. This route to market sees Avaya and its partners retain the customer.

“Our partner base [of] disties, VARs and SPs have not left us,” the CEO said. “In virtually all cases, we’re still, as a vendor for that class of partner, top three.

“It’s important for both of us that there is a healthy environment because we’re important to them and they are important to us.”

Channel Growth

Masarek split Avaya’s partner base into two half: the reseller channel; and agent partners.

While Avaya has been established with distributors and resellers for some time, its agency model only really kicked off in 2019 when it moved into the cloud with Avaya Cloud Office.

The CEO said he expects agents to find working with Avaya more lucrative now that they can sell Avaya Cloud Office integrated with its CX-focused Experience Platform, which wasn’t previously possible.

Partners generate around three-quarters of Avaya’s revenue and more than 70 percent of cloud sales. He added.

“We have so much more to talk about with the partner community and we’ve had an opportunity this week to meet with dozens and dozens of partners,” Masarek said.

“We’ve made headway… and demystified the financial stuff."

From disties, to VARs, to the whole TSV channel, subagents and master agents – the messaging has been incredibly well received. I want to make sure that Avaya’s story is really clear”

Masarek covered a host of subjects during the in-depth interview including: