NICE Drags Avaya Through the Mud with New CXone Campaign

"They won’t be investing in innovation or building on their products," states NICE in an email devised to poach Avaya customers

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NICE Drags Avaya Through the Mud with New CXone Campaign
Contact CentreNews Analysis

Published: September 28, 2022

Charlie Mitchell

NICE is attempting to poach Avaya’s contact center customers, offering a free CCaaS migration as part of its new “CXone Switch” campaign.

CXone Switch promises to make it “easier than ever” for on-premise Avaya customers to migrate to the cloud and transform their contact center.

However, the approach NICE is taking may divide opinion. Indeed, the vendor seems to trash Avaya’s commitment to contact center innovation.

In an email promoting CXone Switch to prospective customers, NICE states: “Avaya is currently in flux, and big decisions about managing their $3B debt continue to loom. Whatever the outcome, the company will need to move quickly. And you must be ready to react.

Despite having recently called for ‘innovation without disruption’, we predict that they won’t be investing in innovation or building on their products – and that is going to affect your ability to deliver on your targets and goals in the future.

The email goes on to offer a £100 Amazon voucher to Avaya clients for an introductory call.

Moreover, NICE has now dedicated a portion of its website to Avaya migration solutions, claiming to have already moved 900+ Avaya customers to the cloud.

There, NICE places significant emphasis on future-proofing the contact center, as it does in the email that pleads with prospects to “choose innovation over uncertainty and gain peace of mind with a solution that will support your organisation well into the future.”

From a business perspective, it is easy to see why NICE is targeting Avaya’s customer base. After all, it includes a who’s who of some of the biggest names in sectors such as finance, travel, and government.

Until now, many of these companies have resisted migration to Avaya’s OneCloud CCaaS solution, having developed highly customized on-premise solutions. Yet, NICE hopes to lure them in with this CXone Switch campaign.

Nevertheless, the campaign’s assertions – such as the $3B debt statement – are perhaps a little misleading.

Yes, $250 million of Avaya’s debt is due in nine months. However, it already has $221 million in restricted cash in escrow – so only a small part of that still needs to be raised.

Furthermore, the rest of Avaya’s debt – which estimates place between $2-3 billion – is not due until 2027-2028. Consequently, the vendor may very well have space for innovation.

Putting these figures into greater context, Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst at ZK Research, told CX Today:

They [Avaya] preannounced they were on a $3 billion run rate. It’s likely to be in that two, two and a half billion range, but that is a lot of money. That makes them one of the largest communications players in the industry.

Yet, while NICE’s approach may seem underhand, CXone is a coveted CCaaS platform and one of only three market leaders, according to the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant.

As such, it may prove an attractive alternative to all Avaya CCaaS customers concerned by the recent speculation surrounding Avaya’s finances – or an excellent opportunity to gain an easy £100 Amazon gift voucher.

 

 

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