Making every interaction count WITH DIGITAL INGENUITY
Where transforming an enterprise starts with transforming business communications Creating superior customer experiences with artificial intelligence and machine learning, Avaya is ready for the digital age of communications
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ith audio conferencing, web conferencing, video conferencing, instant messaging, and more
entering the fray, there are now many ways for businesses to communicate. Needing to simplify this proliferation of new technologies, enterprises of all sizes are now turning their attention to new, innovative approaches like unified communication. By allowing employees to send messages through one medium and receive the same communication on another medium, this integrated way of communicating aims to improve employee efficiency, effectiveness, 04
workforce mobility, customer service and, ultimately, competitiveness. Carving its path as a global leader in digital communications services, Avaya is all too aware of how technology can transform both communication and the customer experience alike. With a far-reaching offering, the company strives to break down the barriers between disparate systems and seamlessly connect business stakeholders and customers. Avaya’s product portfolio can be divided into three core areas – unified communications, cloud solutions, and customer experience and contact centers – and it’s clear they’ve been a hit, with Avaya solutions being used by 95% of all Fortune 500 companies.
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Extraordinary customer engagement powered by AI. Nuance combines the best of automated and human-assisted customer service powered by AI to help companies provide meaningful interactions that maintain context as customers move between devices and channels – from IVR to SMS, virtual assistant to live chat – while informing agents about previous engagements. - Conversational IVR that can understand callers and respond intelligently - Biometrics security and fraud prevention to authenticate users - Virtual assistants for guidance on digital channels - Proactive outreach to notify or remind - Live chat/live agent support when a human touch is needed When customer service is done right – the benefits are loud and clear. You get reduced costs, increased revenue, exceptional customer satisfaction and unwavering brand loyalty. Learn more. Or contact us – cxexperts@nuance.com.
Nuance and the Nuance logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. July 2018/3575
Jean Turgeon, Vice President and Chief Technologist, says that the firm’s cutting-edge digital platform as well as its ability to integrate new technologies is helping it streak ahead of its competitors. “We deliver an automated digital framework, which I describe as a puzzle with different pieces inclusive of an innovative communications
‘ Avaya can respond to events detected by IoT technology and notify the right people in real-time” — Jean Turgeon, Vice President and Chief Technologist
platform,” explains Turgeon. “So, we have to take different technology
still keep up-to-date with the latest
innovations and we bring them all
industry trends.
together to be able to transform and deliver a digital experience. “We have a delivered an open
“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for customers to build a next-generation digitally enabled platform that
architecture bringing together unified
doesn’t unify communication technolo-
communication portfolio, a contact
gies and have the ability to integrate
center portfolio, automated workflow
new technologies such as the internet
capabilities with a high degree of
of things (IoT), AI, analytics and/or
sophistication, and we’ve demonstrat-
taking advantage of blockchain
ed our ability to take other technolo-
technology,” he says.
gies, such as CRM from Salesforce,
With research showing that the next
AI with Afiniti and more, tightly
decade will be marked by record IoT
integrated within our ecosystem.”
growth (some firms predict revenue
Taking its cutting-edge portfolio
will break into the trillions), Avaya is
further, Turgeon says that Avaya’s
leveraging this innovation through its
ability to integrate new technologies
work in workflow automation.
gives it a unique competitive edge as customers can use the portfolio but
For instance, by integrating with IoT technologies, Turgeon believes the w w w. a v a y a . c o m . e n
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system could successfully alert authorities to the breakout of a fire. “We can connect our portfolio very easily to IoT platforms, so that when IoT platforms trigger events that we can automate workflow to notify the right people in real time. This creates a huge level of differentiation; by having this automated digital platform and the flexibility to integrate various technology altogether, it puts Avaya in a very good position from a competitive point of view.” Using its communication services, Avaya can respond to events detected by IoT technology and notify the right people in 08
real-time. This means that, with its API integration, Avaya can make IoT data actionable, and holistically solve business problems for customers.
“ Anything other than real-time or near realtime communication is just not good enough anymore” — Jean Turgeon, Vice President and Chief Technologist
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With virtual reality, chatbots and
time contextual information to let you
augmented reality becoming the norm,
know that it’s not a good idea to
artificial intelligence (AI) and machine
establish a video call with me.
learning have also become a common expectation for customers. Turgeon says that AI will soon play
“Today we leave it up to the caller to make the decisions about how they should contact you. Artificial intelli-
an integral role in communication
gence is going to become a key
services today.
component in communication
“You and I are communicating at
technologies, allowing systems to
this moment,” he tells me. “But if I
automatically determine what is the
was in my car, driving 70 miles per
best modality of communication at
hour on a highway, the system
a particular point in time.
wouldn’t able to retrieve any real-
“You no longer leave it to the caller. w w w. a v a y a . c o m . e n
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“We deliver an automated digital framework, which I describe as a puzzle with different pieces inclusive of an innovative communications platform” — Jean Turgeon, Vice President and Chief Technologist
Now systems can blend that intelligence with machine learning capabilities, consuming all of this data and contextual information, and makes sense of that in real time.” Artificial intelligence could also help contact centers use real-time coaching capabilities, whereby a skilled and experienced employee’s historical data can be used to give immediate feedback to another worker. “If a customer is on a call and is unsatisfied we’re able to provide assistance to a contact center agent in real time based on our sophisticated speech analytics platform,” describes Turgeon. “This allows the ‘machine’ or a supervisor if escalated to be able to both give information to the agent, suggest other ideas on how to handle the situation, or even trigger an event to a supervisor to come and assist you.” By combining its communication services with APIs, the opportunities for Avaya are
FACT
For the 2017 fiscal year, Avaya reported revenue of $3.272bn
endless. This is not only beneficial for the company’s bottom line but it could also help transform people’s lives. Fraudulent calls and scams are a dark cloud for many customers and businesses alike but Turgeon believes Avaya is pushing the envelope with its latest innovations. As part of the Avaya Mobile Experience, the company is working on Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) which will reduce the risk of
Click to watch: ‘Accelerate the speed of your business communications with Avaya Equinox’ 11 identity fraud by using contact centers
other incidents – time is critical. There-
to verify the customer’s validity through
fore, the real-time nature of Avaya’s
the use of biometrics.
portfolio is one of its fundamental traits.
“I can eliminate the three to five
“If you’re unhappy with your service
security questions that someone may
at a hotel, for example, and you tweet
ask to determine your identity if the
about it it’s better if the business is able
confidence factor is high,” Turgeon
to react immediately,” notes Turgeon.
explains. “That’s time wasted by the
“Anything other than real-time or near
agent. We’re hearing from various
real-time communication is just not
industries that they’re spending around
good enough anymore.
40 to 75 seconds on average just trying
“So, we have to start leveraging much
to identify the caller. This really helps to
more sophisticated capabilities to be
improve the customer experience.”
able to transform the experience right
In many of the real-life cases Turgeon
now. You don’t want to lose a customer
discusses – resolving customer com-
who could contact a different organiza-
plaints or alerting people to fires and
tion to do business with. I have to react w w w. a v a y a . c o m . e n
“ It’s about connecting the world in real time, with the right data” — Jean Turgeon Vice President and Chief Technologist
to any issues immediately in real time. “By the same token, if someone is having
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that is most likely to help them.” In the digital era, every
a heart attack or there’s an incident such as
interaction, whether direct or
a fire or a gas leak, time is of the essence. The
indirect, represents an oppor-
real-time aspect of a next-generation digital
tunity to deepen customer
platform that integrates real-time contextual
relationships. By diving into
information is extremely important, regard-
ground-breaking innovations
less of which use cases you look at.”
and offering seamless commu-
Building on its current platforms and
nication experiences, it seems
exploring recent improvements in AI and
Avaya is making sure that every
machine learning, Avaya is working to
opportunity counts.
bolster the AI ecosystem with its new initiative, A.I Connect. Bringing technology vendors and strategic
“From my viewpoint, some of the use cases of our technologies are helping businesses be
partners together, the forum aims to speed
more attractive and profitable,
up the development and application of AI
whilst others are tied to trans-
technologies in contact centers and unified
forming cities, communities, and
communications for Avaya customers.
the type of services that they
“Through A.I Connect we have collaborated with companies such as Salesforce, who is a global leader in CRM, as well as other
can offer to their community,” notes Turgeon. “It’s about connecting the
companies like Afiniti,” adds Turgeon. “Afiniti
world in real time, with the right
offers AI assisted pairing between the
data, and I think this is the tech-
customer and the agent to make sure that
nology that we will continue to
the customer is redirected to the person
invest in.”
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4655 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, California, 95054 USA T 1 (866) GO-AVAYA www.avaya.com/en