Avaya IP Office levels business playing field

By Rhia de Pablo Updated May 02, 2009 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines - Avaya Philippines county director Edgar T. Doctolero said that the new IP Office aims to provide a communications solution tailored for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) which can help them save costs, enhance customer service and increase productivity that is fundamental in surviving in these times of crisis.

“This product marks Avaya’s entry to the SME market. This is an answer to SME’s needs. Considering the crisis, enterprises would want to be on top of their game to improve their productivity and customer service efficiency and reduce their cost,” said Doctolero.

He said that last year, they launched a product that was forced fit for the SME market but it did not achieve the target they wanted as for penetrating this huge sector.

So with the new IP Office solution, Avaya now has a product that helps address the needs of the SME market and fits into their requirements.

Doctolero said that the IP Office provides the same benefit larger enterprises gain from the latest communications technologies.

It can help SMEs simplify access to information, streamline communications between its staff, partners and customers and allow employees to work even outside their workplace.

The solution has call reporting features which allows to store, collate and analyze customer data on their computer network and this can enable companies to better understand customer needs and staff to react faster to them.

“The product highlights the growing trend toward IP telephony adoption in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian markets as it becomes accessible to smaller businesses. While bigger companies have long jumped on the IP telephony bandwagon, smaller businesses were still lagging behind. With the IP Office we are changing all this to enable them to become much more competitive and pass on the benefits to their customers,” said Doctolero.

He said that with the tough times brought about by the economic crisis, businesses these days are looking at ways to address business imperatives that will allow them to be on top of their game.

“It is critical on this point that enterprises utilize tools to address business challenges. Through taking advantage of advanced IT solutions they can address business imperatives and improve their bottom-line,” said Doctolero.

He said that Cebu is strategic with the success of their IP Office solution because it’s a key market for Avaya.

“The success in Cebu for the IP solution would mean that we will be almost there in terms of achieving what we want to penetrate,” said Doctolero.

He also said that in their feat to tap the huge SME market in the country, they aim to get a fair share of the whole SME sphere.

So far, contract centers, financial services and service providers are among the biggest chunk of Avaya’s client base.

Avaya provides a unified communications, contact centers and related services directly and through its channel partners to a leading businesses and organizations around the world.

The company’s ability to support all types of trunk lines (analog, digital and SIP) and all manner of phones provide BPO companies with the flexibility of migrating from traditional systems to advanced IP systems at their own pace without the need for significant investment.