SPONSORED: Avaya boasts of 'bold' cloud strategy at partner conference

Avaya set to make its cloud services available to all its partners as focus on cloud intensifies

2019 will be the year Avaya "pins its growth on cloud", according to international president Nidal Abou-Ltaif.

Speaking to more than 450 channel bosses at the vendor's partner conference in Dubai, Abou-Ltaif (pictured) said Avaya is currently preparing to roll out its cloud services to all partners, calling the firm a "serious cloud services provider".

"Through our announcements today, with the tools and initiatives that we're launching, you'll see that our focus is on enabling partner growth in 2019," he said.

"Cloud is a huge part of that, meaning we have to make our cloud services available to every one of our partners - no matter their size, no matter their business model.

"I'm fairly confident in saying that, because of these initiatives, we have one of the most inclusive partner programmes of any large technology vendor in the world."

Ltaif claimed that Avaya's unified comms-as-a-service (UCaaS) and contact centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) are the vendor's two fastest-growing segments, having grown 700 per cent in 2018.

Avaya has also grown its cloud partner base by 50 per cent, with 144 partners now offering its cloud services.

Abou-Ltaif said that Avaya is now planning to make its UCaaS and CCaaS solutions available to its entire partner base.

The focus on both cloud and partner inclusivity was echoed by Fadi Moubarak, vice president of international channels at Avaya, when he delivered his keynote speech at the summit.

Moubarak said that three key points will drive the vendor's channel strategy in 2019: channel incentives around UCaaS and CCaaS, a greater emphasis on solution selling, and technology innovation.

"These new measures will provide a path for channel partners to move from one value proposition to more advanced ones," he claimed, "from box-shifting to solution selling; from solution selling to innovation building; and from innovation building to enabling true business transformation."

Moubarak also announced changes to Avaya's partner programme, which he said would encourage solution and application selling among partners.

"We're actively empowering our channel partners to provide holistic solutions to their customers," he said.

"With these announcements, Avaya is going from strength to strength, and by extension Avaya's partners are sharing in the growth.

"Avaya partners earned rebates increased by 250 per cent in FY18, and there was a 159 per cent increase in the number of partners who had seen more than 10 per cent growth."