Avaya considers Cebu as growth driver in Phl

CEBU, Philippines - The active technology spending among small and medium businesses in Cebu has encouraged multinational ICT solutions provider Avaya, to make the area as its growth driver in the Philippines.

“We are seeing tremendous growth in Cebu, [and neighboring areas] especially within small and medium businesses,” said Ray Teske Avaya managing director for ASEAN.

Teske said the trend now in the ASEAN is to make second cities as growth drivers as businesses in these areas.

Recently, Avaya announced the roll out of its new technology products to the Cebu market, emphasizing on the provision of mobile technology capability, while enterprise IT is now moving into collaborating the connectivity of Smartphone to different enterprise-related technologies.

Avaya introduced its version of mobile collaboration which optimizes team performance for SMEs.

The Avaya IP Office 8.0 launched the new version of the company’s unified communications (UC) solution, designed for SMEs.

The new version offers a range of advancements for improving collaboration, including a comprehensive set of mobile capabilities that drive better team performance and keep mobile workers connected to their colleagues and customers wherever they go.

Teske said Avaya has recognized the growth of Smartphone users in the Philippines, thus the technology is immediately introduced, to help companies maximize the mobile technology adoption among their employees.

The new mobility for Avaya IP Office 8.0, called one-X Mobile Preferred for IP Office—enables users to access a comprehensive set of unified communications capabilities on Android-compatible devices now, and on iPhone devices in early 2012.

Aside from SMEs, and the huge Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, Avaya is also targeting to provide updated technology solutions to the financial sector, while other banks and financial institutions are lagging behind in terms of adaption to technology and updating IT infrastructure.

Through the new technology tools offered by Avaya, companies will be able to save cost, time while increasing productivity.

Key features of Avaya one-X Mobile Preferred for IP Office for instance, include multi-party conference management via mobile device, which offers the ability to invite, view, mute and drop participants during a conference call. Also, the technology enables an integrated presence, instant messaging, Geo-presence, and visual voicemail. — Ehda M. Dagooc

This year, the company will get its growth confidence in the emerging industries such as health care, property services, and hospitality sector.

Avaya’s aim is to help companies embrace the future in the technology, while concerns of cost is no longer important for serious enterprise players.

The competition in the technology providers has also brought in benefits to consumers, while cost of ownership in the top-notch and updated tools are going down, Teske said. What is important now, is to own and use a technology that is dependable, and cost efficient.

Meanwhile, Justin Jaffe, IDC research manager for SMB (Small and Medium Business) and Home Office markets, said that many general business and IT investment priorities cited by SMBs are associated with improving productivity by leveraging mobile communications and collaboration capabilities.

“Solutions like Avaya IP Office that are comprehensive, easy to integrate with existing infrastructure, and designed specifically for mobile SMB workers will be particularly attractive,” said Jaffe.

More than 60 percent of medium-sized firms in an online survey indicated that they provide smartphones to employees.