Pete Lavache is a big fan of technology user groups. “Our relationship with IAUG is a great two-way street,” said Lavache, who recently joined Avaya as chief marketing officer. “I’m looking forward to continuing to support you.”
Lavache was interviewed by IAUG Vice President Slade Besson, director of telecommunications / networking at Nicholls State University, in a “Fireside Chat” that kicked off IAUG Wired 2024. Colleen Jameson, IAUG executive director, welcomed hundreds of worldwide attendees to the November 20 virtual session. “I invite you to engage with IAUG and thank you for making this an amazing community,” she said.
To start the chat, Besson asked Lavache to introduce himself to the user group. “I have a background in enterprise and clous, as well as private equity-backed companies,” he said. “I’ve been involved with user communities and know about their power.”
Noting that Avaya has been on a “great trajectory,” Besson next question was about how Avaya will be moving forward. “Our management team is focused on our customers and technology. I’m a project-oriented CMO, and have that perspective on who we bring things forward.”
Lavache said he’s worked with Avaya’s new CEO Patrick Dennis, adding that he likes to focus on the company’s assets. “Patrick has talked about AI, not as a destination, but a journey,” he added. “He also values user groups, learning what’s working and what’s not working for you. So, I encourage you give us that feedback.”
Besson followed up Lavache’s comments by noting that IAUG has local chapter meetings all over the world, as well as three technical councils whose members learn about Avaya’s strategy and “kick the tires” on new features. “Our feature request program allows members to suggest enhancements to Avaya products, contributing to our great partnership,” said Besson, adding that IAUG plans to launch several new special interest groups, beginning with Avaya Cloud Office in January, followed by a contact center/supervisor group and an emergency operations center group.
Asked about his advice regarding AI, Lavache said Avaya users should listen carefully to what vendors are saying. “Some are putting AI on all their presentation slides in an ‘everything AI strategy,’” he said. “But look at how they are trying to leverage AI as a tool and unlock that magic to save time and money. We are focused on orchestration and workflows, enabling you to save time and money with better tools. Personally, I use AI every day and have found it to be an excellent time-saver.”
Asked how to get started with AI, Lavache said to start with a simple workflow or task in your contact center environment that’s important. “Look at your pain points and rethink your tools like call summaries and sentiment analysis,’ he added. “There’s not one AI answer for everyone.”
Avaya users should also be looking at the potential return on investment on AI projects, Lavache added. “Right now, many users are deploying tools like virtual agents and agent assist to see how well they perform,” he said. “Again, orchestration is required as many contacts end up with a human agent. AI technology enables you to experiment to see whether you gain benefits without decreasing customer satisfaction. After all, if you do the orchestration poorly, you get a reputation for having bad bots.”
Lavache also emphasized the importance of finding use cases that build an environment of AI trust, noting it takes a lot of hard work and analytics to test the output and be sure you’re hitting your target. “AI is great at digesting information and distilling it for humans,” he said. “At Avaya we are looking how we can use these great tools to service our customers and run our business.”