Avaya's Brave, New, Converged World

How we communicate is about to radically change, and Avaya is leading the way.
By Heinz Bulos
May 2004

et`s say you`re traeling and you`re
expecting an important call.
Uniied communications allows
you dial in to that serer in Makati. \hen
you log in, the system will tell you: you
hae two oice messages, you hae two e-
mail messages, you hae two ax
messages. \ou tell the system without
pressing any key: open my oice mail. And
it will tell you: you hae a oice mail rom
Ldgar Doctolero. \ou will hear my oice
in the message. 1hen you tell the system:
call Ldgar Doctolero. 1he system will call
me without you touching anything. Maybe
you need somebody else during that call.
So you will tell the system: call my boss.
1hen you check your e-mail. \ou tell the
system: read my e-mail. 1he system will
then read your e-mail.`
Ldgar Doctolero is the Country Manager
o Aaya Philippines. And he`s describing
a scenario o what is possible today. 1his
technology is already aailable. Aaya Inc.
calls it conerged communications.

Aaya is best known or its leadership in
the IP telephony and contact center
markets. 1he New Jersey-based company
designs, builds, deploys, and manages
networks or enterprises. Now, it`s
pushing or a world o communications
conergence.

Key to this is what is called Session
Initiation Protocol ,SIP,, a standard used
or connections between deices in IP
networks such as Voice-oer-IP ,VoIP,
phones, allowing users to conduct
multimedia communication sessions.

SIP takes ull adantage o presence`
unctionality, which lets users indicate
their aailability, the deice they`re using,
and how to reach them. It`s much like
instant messaging ,IM,, but coers
multiple points o contact, including
telephones, mobile deices, and personal
computers.

Aaya has integrated Internet applications,
such as e-mail and instant messaging, with
oice and telephone eatures, such as
conerencing, oice mail and click-to-
dial` capabilities.

1he oundation or these capabilities is
the Aaya Conerged Communications
Serer, a suite o open standards-based
sotware applications that enables
customers to deploy SIP and presence-
enabled applications.

Just like with mobile phones, the landline
telephone will no longer be just or oice
calls. \hen the adoption o IP phones
becomes widespread, it will be the end o
the telephone as we know it.

A rich heritage
aya, in act, traces its roots to
Alexander Graham Bell, the
inentor o the telephone. It used
to be part o Lucent 1echnologies, a
diision known as the Lnterprise
Networks Group, until it was spun-o in
October 2000. lor more than a century
prior to that day, it was a part o \estern
Llectric, A1&1, and Lucent.
1he company has a rich heritage,
including the esteemed Bell Laboratories
which was responsible or 1,600 patents
that led to deskset phones, oice-building
switches and switchboards, call-center
L
A
systems, oice-mail sotware, cabling, and
others.
1oday, the ospring Aaya Labs has
added 100 more patents. Now, the shit is
towards Internet Protocol telephony,
wireless data communication, customer-
relationship-management sotware, and
speech recognition technology. And
Aaya Labs is ocusing on new areas such
as context-aware applications,
communication middleware, conerged
networks, data analysis, speech and
multimedia, secure communications,
sotware technologies, and wireless
solutions.
Market dominance
he product innoation is paying
o. Aaya is the global market
leader or IP 1elephony, with 22.4
percent o the market in 2003, according
to industry analyst irm Synergy Research
Group. 1he Synergy report coers the
worldwide enterprise oice market,
proiding market share data or
Lnterprise VoIP Gateways and Lnterprise
1elephony - coering both IP and 1DM
telephony.

Aaya has taken leadership position in all
those technologies. Aaya is a global
leader in IP telephony, call centers, and
uniied messaging,` says Doctolero.
In the U.S., Aaya has more than 90 o
the companies in the lOR1UNL 500 as
well as the U.S. goernment. Customers
worldwide include Siebel, Bank One,
Amazon.com, Luthansa, Prudential,
KPMG, GL, Intel, 1elecom Italia,
Morgan Stanley Dean \itter, AXA, IBM,
1eleonica, Samsung, Compaq, McGraw-
lill, Qantas, \al-Mart, Deutsche Bank,
LDS, lrance 1elecom, MetLie, lord,
A1&1, Caterpillar, and Merrill Lynch.
In Asia Paciic, Aaya is likewise number
one. According to the lrost & Sullian
report entitled, Asia Paciic Interaction
Customer Relationship Management
,iCRM, Market Study 2003`, coering
nine technology segments ,Automatic Call
Distributor, Outbound, Interactie Voice
Response, Computer 1elephony
Integration, \orkorce Management, L-
mail management, Call Monitoring,
Speech 1echnology and Real 1ime \eb
Collaboration,, Aaya has more than 3
percent o the entire market share
,excluding Japan,. And it has retained its
market leadership or our consecutie
years. 1his is in large part to Aaya`s
MultiVantage portolio and it lagship
interactie oice-response system, Aaya
IVR 9.
1he Asia Paciic iCRM market is a
signiicant one or Aaya and its
competitors. 1he region has estimated
annual market reenues o >30 million,
according to a lrost & Sullian study.
More importantly, it is expected to hit
>1.45 billion by 200, with Japan leading
the market ollowed by India and China.
1his is drien largely by growth in the
outsourcing market. China, India, and the
Philippines are expected to grow rapidly
as outsourcing hubs in the region,
particularly or contact centers. In 2002,
Aaya had a market share o 36.3 per cent
in the Asia Paciic, excluding Japan.

1he contact center industry in the
Philippines continues to boom, with a
reportedly 200 percent growth in 2002,
generating around >34 million in
reenues. And Aaya has beneited
signiicantly rom this trend. Doctolero
says, Undoubtedly, we are the market
leader in the call center industry. \e`re
also number one in IP telephony. In C1I
,Computer 1elephony Integration,, we
still rank number one. ACD ,Automatic
1
Call Distribution,, we`re still number
one.`

Certainly, the growth o contact centers in
Asia Paciic is a boon to Aaya, which
proides multiple communication
channels in the same network. IP
telephony working with C1I proides
agents with customer inormation,
transaction history, and customer
preerences. IP-based systems also cuts
down costs and improe processes or
these contact centers. Aaya`s IP-based
contact center solutions under its
Customer Interaction Suite hae
multimedia capabilities, which allows
agents to deal with customers ia e-mail,
short message serice ,SMS,, the \eb,
and phone. So that in itsel gies these
companies the ability to oer a wider
range o serices to their clients.
In 2003, 12 percent o all contact centers
in Asia Paciic were IP-based, compared
to just percent in the U.S. lrost &
Sullian projects that by 2008, 8 percent
o contact centers in Asia Paciic would be
IP-based, compared to 0 percent in
North America.
1his makes Asia Paciic a major market
or Aaya. Already, the company has
about 50 employees in Asia Paciic with
oices and distributors in 25 cities in
Australia, New Zealand, China, 1aiwan,
long Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore,
Sri Lanka, 1hailand, and Vietnam. Aaya
Labs has R&D laboratory acilities Beijing,
Pune, Seoul, Singapore, and Sydney.
Consumer-driven economy
t`s not just contact centers proiding
outsourced serices to other
companies. Aaya has a stronghold in
other industries that require their own
contact centers to sere their own
customers.

Doctolero explains, \e do hae our air
share o the enterprise market. Majority o
the banks are our customers. Also the
goernment has adopted the use o IP
telephony. 1hen there`s the manuacturing
sector.`

A major drier is customer retention.
Gien how the market is eoling, it`s
mostly a customer-drien economy,`
Doctolero points out. Customers now
are becoming more demanding.
Customers now will choose the way you
sere them. 1hat`s why the there`s wide
adoption by enterprises, especially in the
inancial serices industry-insurance
companies, banks, especially those that
oer credit cards. Customer retention is
really one o the business imperaties or
most o these companies.`
le cites an example: In the Philippines,
SMS is widespread. So some banks and
credit card companies now are adopting
SMS or their customer serice or
customer deliery strategy. Some now
would preer to communicate with banks
ia e-mail and the Internet. \e een hae
a customer that seres their customers ia
speech recognition.`
So the enterprise now has eoled rom
what we call centers to contact centers,
the term being used or these companies
that adopt these dierent technologies.
1hey deploy multi-channel technologies.
Customers o banks sometimes do not
want oice. Sometimes they want to e-
mail, sometimes they want to interact
using the \eb.`
lere`s one scenario: In a loan application,
when a customer ills up a orm on the
I
\eb, then somehow during the process
he gets lost, Aaya has what is called
click-to-chat`. 1he customer clicks on a
link, which then dials the agent, and that
agent now guides the customer
throughout the loan application process.
Another example: A P10 million depositor
calls up his bank branch in Cotabato.
Instead o a new hire answering his query,
the Aaya system can identiy the
customer, routes the call to an inestment
specialist at the Makati head oice, and
lets the customer talk with the specialist
without him knowing that the person is
based in Makati.
Doctolero explains, \e hae a
technology in our call center that
whateer technology you hae in the main
oice can be used by all the other
employees nationwide to delier the same
customer experience regardless o
location.`
le adds that mobility is another drier o
this new technology. Let`s say I hae an
oice in Makati, but I`m on trael. I`m in
an airport somewhere, say in Singapore.
\hen a customer calls me on my desk
and I`m not in my oice, we hae the
technology where I can answer that call
using my notebook PC or whateer
communication peripheral that I hae, so
I don`t lose that ery important call and
not lose that customer.`
lrom a business perspectie, conerged
communications-whether external with
customers and suppliers or internal with
colleagues-means increasing oerall
productiity and operational eiciency
throughout an organization. It`s aster to
get in touch with colleagues, obtain
inormation, and make decisions.

Cost cutting
third drier is the need to cut
costs. In the economy today,
most o the CLOs, they want
expenses cut,` says Doctolero. 1he
challenge is to do more with less.`
Most companies hae a data manager and
a telco manager, managing two networks.
Conerging those two networks naturally
reduces cost. But Aaya, says Doctolero,
takes it urther. IP telephony is really
about applications that drie the
enterprise.` So, it`s not just cutting costs,
but boosting productiity and eiciency
that aect the top line as well.
O course, deploying a conerged network
doesn`t come cheap. 1hat`s a major
reason or the slow adoption o IP
telephony.
Aaya IP Solutions combine three
components: its telephony sotware, the
Aaya Communication Manager, a
modular mix-and-match set o media
serers and media gateways, and the
Aaya Integrated Management set o
system and network management
solutions to manage a conerged network.
Aaya also proides communication
deices rom analog, digital, and IP
telephones to IP screenphones, IP
sotphones, IP sotphone or Pocket PCs,
and sotconsoles.
But Doctolero says that when they show
companies an ROI calculation, they
realize the beneits.
Another obstacle is security concerns.
1he network now is the lieblood o the
enterprise,` says Doctolero. le points out
that there are companies that deploy IP
telephony without really looking into
security. lor many, they iew VoIP as not
A
secure enough. At Aaya, we address the
security concerns,` he says.
Still, despite the slower than expected
adoption or IP telephony, growth has
been encouraging. lor the past three years
worldwide IP telephony lines shipped
hae more than doubled each year. 2004 is
expected to be slightly less, but will still
see 0 to 5 per cent growth.
1he hybrid approach
aya`s traditional competitors
include Nortel Networks and
Alcatel, which are traditional oice
switch endors, with products based on
circuit-switched technologies, reerred to
as 1ime Diision Multiplexing ,1DM,.
But like Aaya, they also hae products
that adapt these traditional networks to
IP, i.e. hybrid systems o 1DM and IP.

A new competitor, howeer, has entered
the picture. Cisco Systems Inc., long
known or its Internet products like
routers and data switches, now sells pure
IP products to handle oice, treating it as
just another data stream. And it has
proen to be a ormidable newcomer as it
has its installed customer base within I1
departments o hundreds o companies
worldwide.

Doctolero emphasizes the adantage o
taking a hybrid approach. In the
Philippine setting, as with many markets
worldwide, most companies hae already
inested heaily into their PABX systems.

Pure IP technology requires customers to
get rid o their old PABX systems. But
companies want to maximize their
inestments. Doctolero says, lor Aaya,
we approach it dierently. lor example,
you hae an existing PABX that you
bought 3 or 5 years ago. \ou tell a
lilipino company to get rid o that O
course not! \e hae the technology where
you can use your existing PABX and we
connect an Aaya system to it. \ou
implement IP telephony in the enterprise
when you please. \ou can do it in phases.
Like maybe you like to hae IP telephony
deployed or executies, but or the
clerical sta, you can use your existing
traditional telephone network. So we gie
the customers a choice. 1hen maybe in
phase two, they can moe to a pure IP
telephony. And the next phase is what we
call conerged communications.`
Aaya`s strategy o oering businesses the
beneit o choice in pursuing an all-IP
network or a mixed solution combining
IP and traditional telephony appears to be
working. 1his allows companies to make
more lexible decisions when migrating to
IP telephony while allowing them to
maximize alue rom current inestments.
Another key dierentiator is in
applications. Doctolero explains, Our
competitors talk about conerged
networks. At Aaya, we talk about
conerged communications. It will really
be the applications that will drie the
demand.` Aaya has encouraged
independent deelopers to create
applications or an Aaya enironment
through its DeConnect Program. Now,
there`s a long and growing list o
applications other companies hae written
around Aaya solutions.
\hile other companies talk about
conerged networks, Aaya has taken the
issue urther with its ision o conerged
communications. A conerged network is
simply conerging a oice network and a
data network. Conerged communications
is where you deploy applications within
that conerged network to run the
enterprise, where communications is an
integral part o the whole enterprise. So
A
you would hae uniied communications,
where you can consolidate oice, e-mail,
and ax.

It also helps that Aaya is ocused on this
business. Other competitors like Nortel,
Siemens, Alcatel, and Cisco hae dierse
businesses. 1hat`s why no one can match
the breadth and depth o Aaya`s eatures.
Doctolero sums it up: \e are really
ocused on the enterprise. \e really listen
to the customers. Our technologies are a
product o what our customers tell us they
need. \e are known as leaders in oice
technology and the solutions that enhance
oice technology.`
It may still take a while beore IP
telephony becomes ubiquitous in
enterprises. But when that day comes,
Aaya is in the best position to rule in that
brae, new, conerged world.