Avaya CEO Alan Masarek — 'Avaya is Back'
In an exclusive interview with UC Today at this week's Avaya ENGAGE, Avaya CEO Alan Masarek discussed his one-year anniversary in the role and ENGAGE's key trends.
My hope was that the takeaway was that, undeniably, unquestionably, Avaya is back. I think that came through in just complete clarity."
Additionally, Masarek provided insights into his vision for Avaya going forward and how the past year lay the foundations for the next stage of fulfilling that vision.
"All that work we've done on the core business about resetting product strategy, the go-to-market strategy, resetting things thematically about what we refer to as innovation without disruption," Masarek said. "Organising the company in support of those strategies and then revitalizing the culture has really happened. Our partners have been really supportive."
Another Avaya announcement this week, timed alongside ENGAGE, was the release of multiple platform integrations and capabilities, as well as expanded partnerships with Google Cloud and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, signalling the start of a growth period at the company.
Avaya has introduced multiple hybrid Avaya Experience Platform services and Avaya Experience Platform Connect. Platform Connect enables businesses to use their current on-premises infrastructure for voice routing, call handling, and more.
Through its collaboration with Google Cloud, Avaya can produce a new wave of contact centre AI solutions, which leverage Avaya’s contact centre technology alongside Google Cloud’s AI and machine learning capabilities. Its partnership with ALE is also aiding its customers to meet their digital transformation ambitions.
As it has exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Masarek has been establishing Avaya's new CCaaS-focused, "innovation without disruption" vision in place, as well as adding three new hires to its C-Suite.
- Watch UC Today's exclusive interview with Alan Masarek
- Read more about Avaya's platform and partnership growth
Zoom Introduces Platform to Sony TVs and Launches Scheduler Solution
Zoom has partnered with Sony to bring its video communications and collaboration platform to BRAVIA TVs.
The solution, available as a Zoom for TV app through Google TV, aims to help users easily connect with colleagues for video meetings in remote or hybrid working situations.
We are thrilled to work with Sony to bring Zoom to their BRAVIA TVs," said Eric Yu, Head of Hardware Partnership at Zoom. "We are allowing our customers to enjoy the best of both worlds – the convenience of video conferencing on their TV and the power of Zoom’s collaboration tools."
Zoom on BRAVIA TV leverages the feature set of Zoom’s platform — including screen sharing and collaboration tools as well as video communications through the TV — with BRAVIA Camera’s advanced features. These involve spatial recognition of where users are in the room and how far they might be from the TV, data which the camera can then use to adapt the sound and picture settings.
Zoom for TV will be available on BRAVIA TVs compatible with a BRAVIA camera early this summer.
In other Zooms news, the vendor announced a new calendar alignment solution, Zoom Scheduler, to reduce friction for planning meetings and improve collaboration.
Zoom Scheduler aims to minimise the "toggle tax" of moving between different applications like a user’s email, calendar, and video communications service, which impacts productivity. Zoom Scheduler is appointment scheduling and management within Zoom’s platform. Users generate availability slots for meeting attendees, and then the attendees can choose a preferred time that works for everyone.
