Keith Dawson's Analyst Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Avaya drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Earlier this year we published the Ventana Research Value Index: Contact Center in the Cloud 2021, the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts. It is an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings will address buyers’ requirements for contact center software. The index is structured to replicate an RFI/RFP process by incorporating all criteria needed to evaluate, select, utilize and maintain technology, and maintain relationships with vendors.

In all of our Value Indexes we utilize a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for contact center in the cloud. We evaluated Avaya and 13 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product and experience (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the customer experience (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our benchmark research. Avaya performance rating in the Value Index is overall at 87.5% and for customer experience is 80.4% and product experience is 88.9%.

Avaya is a longstanding contact center provider from on-premises to now cloud computing. It ranked fifth overall and was classified as an Innovative Vendor, and a Value Index Leader in the Capability category. Its reenergized commitment and efforts to the contact center were clear in the assessment and resulting ranking in many of the categories.

Avaya did well in Usability with the user experience, including those related to collaboration, and its adaptability to different roles in the contact center. Avaya’s highest ranking in Capability was due to a comprehensive approach related to call handling and capturing interactions, and integrations.

In our assessment, Avaya could improve in Adaptability, Manageability and Reliability. In each of these areas, the depth of investment is not as clear, nor is the information on its approach. More work in clarity of its business and user integrations would be good. It also could improve its TCO/ROI with more depth in its approach and the tools, information and services it provides.

This assessment was based on Avaya’s contact center products available at end of March in 2021.

When cloud contact centers first emerged a decade ago, the focus for many was on finding the lowest cost provider. Today’s organizations should consider a broader range of criteria in their selection process, which we outline in this Value Index. A modern contact center requires technology that provides continuous innovation and a product and customer experience to meet their long-term goals. With this in mind, when organizations begin the process of evaluating their efforts, they might consider Avaya.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of contact center in the cloud software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Read the report here.

Regards,

Keith Dawson