Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 25 | Page 27

COMMENT centre-as-a-service offerings are also reaching maturity and growth in sector should accelerate in 2018 Moreover, we believe in the power of establishing vertical specialisation to capture relevance. After all, it is one thing to apply technology horizontally, but it’s much more powerful when you can address the unique business challenges faced by players in each vertical. We are working with our own channel partners to empower them as they go after customers in high-value verticals, with packaged solutions that are proven business-ready. In 2018, we will also be centred on speeding the development and application of AI technologies in contact www.intelligentcio.com centres and unified communications. AI offers significant opportunities to address many of the complexities and issues faced by companies in delivering an optimal customer experience. For example, it can enable companies to capture and utilise real-time customer sentiment to defuse or re-position situations that could lead to customer dissatisfaction. AI can also help businesses and governments instantly organise vast amounts of available data input using predictive analytics to deliver optimal information in real time, where it can help impact an ongoing customer interaction. What will Avaya’s focus be for 2018? Avaya is creating a new growth story. Today we act very much like a start- up, focused on growth and execution, but with unique differentiators such as a large customer base, technology leadership and a strong vertical presence. In 2018, we are simplifying our organisational structure with the goal of remaining a customer-driven company – and making it easier for customers and partners to do business with us. As one example, Avaya is giving customers and partners the same capabilities our R&D team has and the complete freedom to define and build their own user experience. The year ahead will be built on both technology and relationships. We have already started to re-engineer our core platforms, making it faster and simpler to adopt new functionalities and integrate new technologies. We will also take a leadership position to deliver to customers and partners simpler, more cost-efficient implementation of our roadmaps. All of this will be underscored by a commitment to speed to market, simplicity in doing business and excellence in execution. n INTELLIGENTCIO 27