Here are some initial thoughts about the acquisition and what it'll take for it to succeed:* Lower TCO of the communications infrastructure: Partner with someone like HP and sell the legacy Bay Networks to them. Between HP & Avaya, provide the networking, desktops, and phones at an enterprise's office and have all maintenance and support through one vendor. The top reason a lot of large enterprises move to Cisco phones is the lower TCO model, esp. maintenance costs.
* Become a Solution Provider: Avaya needs to be a solution provider, not have a few best of breed products. Examples include:
--SBC: As part of the Aura SIP suite, buy or build a Session Border Controller. SBCs are a critical component of a full SIP communications solution. --Contact Centers: Voice recording, work force management, and all the other communications components that make up a multi-channel contact center --Communications State - Maintain interactive, asynchronous communication state across all channels including managing a communications cookie on the end device
* Common UI & Tools: No matter the product or legacy, have a common configuration user interface across all platforms (Eclipse based) with a common monitoring, troubleshooting, logging, and reporting platform. * Stay in the hard phone business: Sure, the goal is to have all advanced communication features run on the desktop or smart phone, but it is still important to deliver a hard phone that offers high quality audio, works when the desktop is down, and has one-button features for things like mute, call differ, conference, voicemail, headset, and hold. Phones are profitable plus they show off your brand every day. Wideband, adaptive, codecs are the next big thing. Also add your own headset and FMC phones.
* CaaS: Yes, most large enterprises usually choose to build vs. buy due to economies of scale and core differentiation. But, for testing, training, and business pilots, having a platform that is immediately available will shorten the sales cycle. Also, when some companies' infrastructure becomes so outdated and all of a sudden business revenue starts suffering, in order to act quickly, a CaaS solution may be a good alternative.
* Low cost, on-line training and certification: Even with a great product, if it is not implemented or supported correctly, it will offer little value. There are a lot of smart people, but budgets and time are limited for training classes. Most enterprises that have legacy Avaya gear also have legacy staff to support it. Both need to be upgraded.
* Eat your own dog food: Be an industry example of your thought leadership. In the past, Avaya has been difficult and slow to do business with.