Avaya appoints Bartolo as SME chief

Avaya has tasked Anthony Bartolo with setting the communications vendor's SME agenda after appointing him as general manager of its Integrated Office Communications division.

Bartolo arrives from his previous role as chief executive of peer-to-peer networking design specialist Skyrider. Prior to that, he has held senior product and marketing roles at vendors including Nortel and Symbol Technologies (now Motorola's Enterprise Mobility Business).

Avaya claimed Bartolo's experience of working in SME-focused roles was key to his appointment. The New Jersey-based vendor recently claimed it was strategically targeting the SME space as a chance to grab market share.

Speaking at Avaya's partner conference in Madrid in September, chairman Charlie Giancarlo said: "SME is a great opportunity for us because (the market) is very fragmented and Avaya is one of the largest players."

The Integrated Office Communications division provides products for companies with up to 250 staff, its flagship product being the IP Office communications platform. Avaya claims more than 140,000 have been sold to date and that the vendor is currently the top vendor in EMEA for firms with fewer than 100 employees.

Bartolo said: “While challenging, the current economic climate can be an opportunity to help SMEs use communications strategically to remove excess costs and drive efficiency.

"Cost-effective solutions like IP Office deliver highly integrated productivity tools that efficiently scale along with a business as it grows from a very small into a much larger organisation, providing an intelligent groundwork for future success.”