Avaya has launched a new platform to bet its future on: Avaya Infinity.
Infinity aims to unify Avaya’s contact center and unified communications portfolio on a single platform, while layering orchestration and AI over the top.
That orchestration capability stems from Avaya’s 2024 acquisition of Edify.
It allows companies to design new customer service experiences. Avaya then offers a no-code engine to “orchestrate” those journeys.
However, Avaya doesn’t just plot out new service workflows; with Infinity, it also connects the channels, insights, and tech behind them.
“Strong bonds are earned over time, interaction by interaction,” said Patrick Dennis, CEO of Avaya.
But the reality for the world’s largest businesses and public sector organizations is that too often investments in new technologies, channels, and modalities meant to strengthen customer interactions actually splinter them.
“Avaya Infinity reverses this tide, collapsing silos and creating connections that transform the contact center from a vehicle for surface-level contact to the place where enterprise relationships deepen and expand,” concluded Dennis.
Why Is Avaya Releasing Infinity?
In an interview with ZK Research, Tony Lama, SVP and GM of Products at Avaya, spoke of how Infinity comes after a lot of soul searching in the company.
Lama noted that Avaya – under its new leadership team – took a hard look at the company and what its customers wanted most.
“There was a realization that we were trying to be all things to everyone, and that doesn’t yield great outcomes,” said Lama.
So, Avaya went through a product rationalization process. It narrowed its focus to a smaller set of products, focused its innovation, and committed to delivering them with higher quality.
“We’re done with navel-gazing and we’ve spent a meaningful amount of time talking to our customers… about the strategy that we’ve embarked on, validating it,” continued Lama.
Our customers are saying: “We just want you to deliver innovation, bring it to me in a manner that doesn’t upend my entire organization and allows me to consume it in the cloud or on-prem… Infinity is essentially the result of that.
“The evolution of our AXP platform is now Avaya Infinity,” he concluded.
New Innovation, New Chapter for Avaya? They’re Banking On It
To be frank, Avaya has borne the brunt of some tricky headlines in recent times. Firstly, its global layoffs gained media attention for all the wrong reasons.
While the US faced the first wave of cuts, they soon spread across the Middle East and Europe.
At the time, Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research, said: “I suspect what we are seeing in the UK/EU is aligning that region with the rest of the company.
Also, I don’t believe a significant portion of the G1500 (Avaya’s largest global 1,500 customers) is in the UK, so my speculation is that they will only leave a small group of people there to service what they need.
That prioritization of larger customers left rivals circling Avaya’s broader base. Some former employees even joined Teknowledge and partnered with Genesys to snag customers.
These rivals sensed another opportunity when Avaya introduced a monthly minimum commitment of 200 seats for Avaya Experience Platform (AXP) Public customers.
However, with the announcement of Infinity, Avaya is bouncing back.
Dennis concluded: “For decades, Avaya has been the trusted partner for enterprises operating in complex, highly regulated industries, and our largest customers have made it clear: rigid systems and AI experiments are holding them back.
“They need a connection center that lets them modernize on their terms—without giving up control, extensibility, or security.
By extending the value of their existing investments, Avaya Infinity expands the possibilities of who enterprises are today and accelerates the best of what they can be next.”
If anyone has learned anything from the past decade, Avaya will keep fighting back, even as the market it operates in becomes increasingly crowded.
Indeed, with AWS, Google, and Microsoft eyeing up the contact center space, it’s a fascinating time for all industry participants.
