Avaya Ready To Re-ENGAGE

After emerging from bankruptcy last month, Avaya CEO Alan Masarek wants partners and customers to know that it’s back and open for business.

The unified communications giant’s journey back to financial health wasn’t easy and didn’t happen overnight. Avaya in February filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after months of speculation of a bankruptcy declaration following the company’s cloud subscription accounting problems. The company went through not only financial restructuring, but also a business realignment, which is still in the works, according to Masarek.

The company’s CEO, who was brought on last summer, explained that the “thesis” that Avaya was working with when he joined was that it had one of the biggest – if not the biggest – install base of UC customers globally. How could the company take advantage of that gigantic customer base by helping these enterprises, government agencies, and SMBs, move to a customer experience platform? Enter the Avaya Experience Platform, a cloud-based Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) and collaboration offering that allows customers and partners to add on new communication features as they go. And it’s the platform that Avaya is using to reposition itself as a leader in the customer experience market.

Avaya CEO Masarek sat down with CRN to talk business updates since the company has emerged from bankruptcy and what partners can expect on its transformation journey. Here’s what Masarek had to say.