The London-based service provider focuses on developing customer experience-enhancing contact center and unified communications solutions for Avaya cloud offerings. And they've done a fine job. This was clear when the vibrant and ambitious developers earned the distinction of Avaya's 'Mid-Market Partner of the Year.' Avaya recognized Formation Tech as one of its largest international cloud providers. And this year, Co-Founder, Mark Tyers, said they are on track to be the largest Avaya cloud partner in the international region.
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Mark Tyers[/caption]
In four years, Formation Tech has racked up some impressive accolades. They have also seen explosive growth and achieved Avaya 'Diamond Cloud Integrator' status, news we reported back in January. This makes them one of only two partners in Europe to receive the accreditation.
In a recent interview with Tyers, he told me the new partnership will impact the way Formation Tech does things but welcomed the change as positive. The RingCentral deal ticks a lot of boxes for both businesses, the main one for Avaya is the ability to fast track a multi-tenant cloud offering. Tyers told me, their success to date has largely been in the mid-market who value the control and security you can achieve through the current private cloud offering. "It is great, however, to see Avaya with a partner on board to really push the whole organization into the cloud," he added.
A Changing UC Landscape
Today's UC landscape is a lot more complex than it was when Formation Tech came on the scene four years ago. And there are a lot of variables at play, the sheer amount of cash involved in the deal, for starters. RingCentral made a $500 million investment to help Avaya continue its forward momentum. This alone gives RingCentral a say in the future of Avaya and a six percent stake in the company. The second variable, under the terms of the agreement, they will launch a new UCaaS solution - 'Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral' in 2020.
“There was a period of unpredictability surrounding where Avaya would go and what it would do. The leadership there made it through Chapter 11 bankruptcy and on to a successful listing on to NASDAQ"
"The Mitel deal on the table made some sense but wasn’t the best outcome for the customer and could have led to a longer period of uncertainty." Tyers believes RingCentral will also enjoy the partnership, citing Avaya’s strong contact center pedigree. He expanded, adding "this is Avaya’s strongest play and an area we expect they'll focus on more."
As more details about the deal surface – it will be intriguing to see what possibilities the new partnership delivers. Tyers says it is great to see Avaya collaborating and looking outside of the business for solutions. He added, RingCentral has long had a partnership with Zoom for video, and there are many other examples in our space of tech businesses looking to "best of breed partners" to provide a complete solution.
