Have Avaya just become relevant again? Since Skype and Avaya have shared common ownership it has been speculated that the two companies would create a deeper technical and commercial parternship. While it may have taken longer than necessary; this week Avaya and Skype made the announcement that they would share technology and Skype trunks would be pre-loaded onto Avaya systems in North America.
“Avaya and Skype have been working along parallel paths to offer, innovative, scalable, low cost, SIP-based communications to our respective markets,” said Alan Baratz, senior vice president, Avaya and president, Avaya Global Communications Solutions. “Now, the two companies will work together, striving to improve collaboration and customer service by federating Avaya and Skype solutions for a common user experience that delivers unique benefits for businesses and their customers who are Skype users.”
“Our relationship with Avaya is expected to expand the footprint for Skype Connect into more enterprises in the U.S. market, while allowing us to help Avaya’s customers benefit from Skype’s cost savings and access to Skype’s global user base,” said David Gurlé, vice president and general manager of Skype for Business. “We believe our integrated solution in the second half of 2011 is expected to offer the benefits of Skype to a growing number of businesses and open up new ways for people to communicate and collaborate.”
Many partnerships often end in tears but this one has potential to add value to both sides. Skype have the software and a brand that represents internet telephony and video but little traction in the business market or channel partners. Avaya has the business market and channel but needs innovative software to combat the likes of Cisco and Microsoft. Combining the two offers a genuine market opportunity. If Avaya can pull through their customer base and deploy Skype trunks and then implement the Skype client software as their collaboration offer they have a chance.
There are many questions however, how can Avaya monetize Skype, how will they be able to pull through the Skype brand with the traditional PBX offer? If they find a way will other vendors be able to take advantage by integrating Skype into their product range. Will Avaya really push Skype as their collaboration software and effectively mothball their own software? Lots of questions but at least I can see a way forward for Avaya with this partnership.
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