Avaya has announced $600M in financing, which it will invest within the next 12 months.
Upsized from the previously announced sum of $500 million, the leading contact center technology provider aims to harness the increased funding to upgrade its business model.
Indeed, Kieran McGrath, Chief Financial Officer at Avaya, stated:
We are pleased with the successful execution of this financing. This funding supports and accelerates our business model transformation and addresses our convertible notes maturing in June of next year.
While the vendor did not release many details of its investment plans, its model currently focuses on supporting clients in moving from on-premise technology to its Avaya OneCloud portfolio.
Often, it kickstarts this process with CPaaS, supporting clients in migrating to the cloud for digital channel transformation, as insinuated in a recent CX Today feature.
This tactic enables simple integrations that pave the way for an omnichannel contact center and the introduction of conversational AI to combat rising call volumes.
Following such strategies allowed Avaya to secure 75 percent of its bookings from its OneCloud portfolio – as it repositions from a historic one-time revenue model to a recurring alternative.
Yet, as contact centers move to the cloud, Avaya’s competition increases. The significant $600M financing may enable Avaya to stay at the forefront of the industry.
Of course, that is the goal. As Jim Chirico, President, and CEO at Avaya, stated during a recent earnings call:
We are committed to delivering business-impacting innovation, maintaining our competitive edge, and we continue to focus on the long game, investing in growth drivers and doing so profitably.
For the reasons highlighted previously, these growth drivers may include greater investment in CPaaS and conversational AI, with Avaya recently adding a “ready to deploy” bot to its portfolio.
Alongside this, the company is likely to focus on its Microsoft integrations – already working closely with the global leader in enterprise technology. Indeed, the entire OneCloud solutions portfolio is available on Azure.
Yet, Chirico has previously hinted that this is just the beginning, saying:
“We have a lot of work going on with Microsoft, both their sales folks selling it via CCaaS as well as the partnerships around doing some work with those guys as far as hosting our private and public cloud solutions.
We’re excited at where we are, even though it’s very early with Microsoft, but the engagement and the teaming has actually been outstanding.
As Teams becomes the next frontier for CCaaS growth – especially as Microsoft’s native contact center offerings remain in their infancy – Avaya may see additional integrations as an opportunity for rapid growth.
However, it is difficult to honestly say how Avaya will make good on its promise to “innovate” and harness the $600M. It will undoubtedly prove an exciting 12 months for everyone at the company.
