Tapping the Power of Avaya Spaces
In today’s work-from-anywhere environment, Avaya Spaces can deliver a professional-level communication and collaboration experience, making it easier for organizations to delight their customers.
“You need the ability to innovate quickly and adapt to the evolving needs of your customers,” said Kristine Konrad, manager, Avaya Spaces solutions marketing, delivered that message in a virtual Avaya ENGAGE 2021 session, “Creating Fans of Your Brand: How Supporting a ‘Work From Anywhere’ Workforce Delivers on the Total Experience.”
Konrad said Avaya Spaces delivers value across the enterprise in many ways:
• Always-on virtual workspaces for both public and private persistent conversations, with easy guest access.
• AI-enhanced meetings, with app, screen and video sharing, as well as recording
• Productivity dashboard, with rich content posts, unlimited storage, time management and alerts and notifications
• Workflow integration with Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and other enterprise applications
From a user perspective, Ben DePriest, COO, Quality Resource Management, said “I never would have imagined we’d be offering permanent remote positions. Now, we’re seeing that with the right tools, we can have it all.”
New workplace dynamics
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the dynamics of work around the world, said Konrad. “Work is increasingly collaborative, and every role can contribute regardless of time zone,” she said. “Today, everyone is customer-facing – not just the front office.”
One of the collaboration challenges facing teams is the importance of providing a consistent experience regardless of device or location, Konrad said. “You might have people connecting from a hotel or an Uber, as well as from home office or dedicated meeting room in your office,” she added. An employee on the move should also be able to switch from a smartphone in the car to a tablet or laptop at home without disrupting the conversation.
As a CPaaS solution, Avaya Spaces can extend the power of existing on-prem telephony, providing more collaboration capabilities, such as the flexibility to quickly set up a session, as well as the ability to scale, Konrad added. “For instance, you might want to have 1,000 people on a video call for an hour to celebrate a major triumph,” she said.
John Valencia, president and CEO, Toolwire, called Avaya Spaces a “tremendous collaboration platform for us to build upon, enabling us to provide universities and companies of any size with the collaboration capabilities they require.”
An integrated approach
While it is more important than ever to focus on the employee experience (EX), the UC&C platform should also support the customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX), Konrad said. Organizations should take an integrated approach, breaking through department silos and making it effortless for employees to access customer data, as well as collaboration and communication tools.
“You don’t want employees to jump to another browser environment, such as adding meetings to their calendars,” she said. “Workers also benefit from convenient click-to-call, messaging, and file-sharing tools, as well as the ability to juggle multiple calls at once.
Collaboration solutions need to incorporate the entire workstream before, during, and after a session – in order to deliver the best outcomes. That’s one of the advantages Avaya Spaces offers the enterprise. “We are leveraging the power of the cloud for performance and security,” Konrad said. “We are also continually releasing new features, such as self-service troubleshooting. In just the second year of market availability, Avaya Spaces is already helping enterprises around the world address the growing need for a powerful communication and collaboration solution.”
