Avaya Makes the Trip
Avaya has a relatively minor financial investment in Dreamforce. The kiosk seen above had a list price of $25,000 (as you'll see in a later slide, a piddling sum compared to what other contact center players spent). But unlike many companies with a small presence, Avaya didn't leave staffing of the booth to local salespeople. Coming up to San Francisco from Avaya's Santa Clara headquarters, Karen Hardy, VP of product marketing and solutions, and Bernard Gutnick, a senior director, greeted me when I dropped by the booth.
I also attended an Avaya breakout session (which I'm sure had an additional price tag associated with it) on digitizing the customer experience, presented by Jean Turgeon, Avaya VP and chief technologist. The session was well-attended, and Avaya did all the right things during it, which includes presenting a slide that reinforced the partnership it announced with Salesforce earlier this year. Baby steps.
