Avaya Adds Services For VoIP Technology

The company has also established a sales team dedicated to selling services, including the network planning, design, implementation and outsourced management services delivered by Avaya's 10,000-member worldwide services organization, said Linda Schumacher, vice president of strategy for services at Avaya, based here.

Avaya's services group has also added support for convergence products from other vendors including Nortel Networks and Siemens Enterprise Networks, Schumacher said.

The services, such as network assessment for voice-over-IP readiness based on Avaya's ExpertNet VoIP Assessment Tool, are available for solution providers to resell, she said.

"We have a complementary strategy, not a competitive strategy, with our partners," Schumacher said. "The business partner would have a contract with the customer and we would have a contract with the business partner to provide support."

Services accounted for about $2.5 billion, or about 37 percent, of Avaya's $6.8 billion in revenue for fiscal 2001, and Avaya hopes to grow that figure, Schumacher said.

Solution providers said they had been expecting Avaya to add services around its convergence technology.

"It increases their credibility and will also help to stimulate convergence sales," said Robert Feldman, executive vice president at NetVersant, a Houston-based solution provider. "It makes them more viable, it makes the technology more viable, and that's going to help support the business partners as well," he said.

Customers are looking for a single point of contact for both voice and data services, and solution providers working with Avaya can now fill that role, said Eric Schmiedeke, CEO of research firm InfoTech.

Solution providers also said they expect to see little channel conflict resulting from Avaya's new services.

"It's complementary to what we can do, and we're eager to see Avaya step up in the converged arena," said Tim Harr, vice president of corporate development at IP Revolution, a Bellevue, Neb.-based solution provider. "It continues to help validate our position in the market and what we've been evangelizing for the past several years," he said.

For example, partners can call in Avaya's services organization to work on large jobs that require quick implementation, said Frank Rust, vice president at Indianapolis-based solution provider TeleServe Technologies.