With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe, companies of all sizes in the communication and collaboration industry have begun to demonstrate their value. Avaya, one of the world leaders in communication and collaboration, is just one of the companies making a real difference to the landscape today.
Despite joining the company at a strange time in the communication industry, Simon Harrison has jumped into the opportunity to show the world what a communication leader can do for companies in times of crisis. Avaya has been expanding its free offers of communication and collaboration apps, ensuring that businesses can maintain continuity in these uncertain days.
I spoke with Avaya CMO, Simon Harrison, about the latest measures that Avaya is taking.
How Is Avaya Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic?
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Simon Harrison[/caption]
Simon noted that the speed at which the world has changed in the last couple of weeks has been incredible. We’re all facing a strange scenario, where people are stuck inside their homes, unable to travel to work or meet with loved ones. However, Harrison told me that because Avaya is equipped with some of the most innovative communication technology in the market, they’re in a unique position to help the world overcome this threat.
“I think we’ve made a huge difference already. I joined Avaya in part because of the huge heart within the company. From the beginning of this epidemic, Avaya has been on the front lines, delivering free audio and video equipment to hospitals in Wuhan. We’ve helped China’s airlines deploy home solutions for remote airlines, and I hear success stories every day about the work we’re doing.”
Simon noted that Avaya had seen a 700% increase in the use of its collaboration platform since they began offering the Spaces service for free to non-profit, healthcare and educational companies. Around the world, Avaya’s technology has helped huge companies to evolve. In Korea, the company helped one of the country’s largest telecom providers to move over 1,500 agents into remote working. In Northern India, Avaya technology is being used to enable work-from-home solutions for millions of inhabitants. “We even worked with the UP112 emergency call centre to ensure a quick response time, even with agents working from home.”
Tell Us How Avaya is Making a Difference?
Simon told me that he was blown away by all the work that Avaya is doing to support people in this new and sudden age of remote working. In the EMEA landscape, education institutions are using Avaya Spaces to communicate with students and parents, making sure that children can continue to learn from a distance. The University of Milan is even using Avaya solutions to create virtual classrooms and information sessions too.
“Even families wanting to meet with pastors for church have been able to use Avaya to create these crucial environments in a virtual landscape”
According to Simon, we’re living in a world where everything is agile, dynamic, and unplanned. The traditional workspace where every meeting and call needed to be scheduled months in advance has been replaced with something much more changeable. We’re constantly evolving and improving in the way that we communicate, tapping into new technology at the very edge of innovation, like augmented reality and virtual assistants. “Avaya Spaces started as one of those innovation-at-the-edge solutions. Now, it’s surfaced as a reliable way for companies to address the problems of the traditional UC market.”
Avaya is allowing companies from all around the world to meet and connect in an innovative and more agile format, without having to compromise on productivity. In collaboration with Avaya, for instance, the Italian Regione Liguria government is now allowing employees to collaborate and communicate remotely. One of the largest telecom providers in Germany has enabled another 7,000 employees to work from anywhere with access to Avaya technology, keeping them safe in these times of crisis.
