About 70 percent of small and medium-sized businesses in the United States are now using or planning to use unified communications applications, according to a recent study from Ontario, Canada-based Info-Tech Research Group.

 

Though cutbacks in spending and a slower economy are holding up some UC and VoIP implementations, TMCNet Contributing Editor Calvin Azuri reports, companies such as Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based Avaya (News - Alert) Inc. – a sponsor of next month’s Internet Telephony Conference & Expo in Los Angeles – say they’re focusing on SMB sales and services. Specifically, Avaya officials say, they want to become a major UC contender for SMBs.

 

Part of Avaya’s effort involved bringing on industry veteran Raj Sonty four months ago as vice president of solutions at its SMB division. Prior to the post, Sonty had worked as vice president of business operations for Xerox Corp.’s office group. Bolstering his expertise in the SMB channel there, Sonty was in charge of channel expansion, product and solutions management and product portfolio development.

 

Led by TMC President and Group Editor-in-Chief Rich Tehrani, TMCNet recently posed a series of questions to Sonty about his vision for UC applications among SMBs, the prospects of SIP trunking for resellers, the future of telepresence as a cost-saving solution and just how Avaya plans to position itself in the UC market for SMBs.

 

 

Raj Sonty: It’s our experience that even the smallest businesses want the same things big businesses want: communications that are affordable, secure, easy to operate and provide the critical features that can make a difference in their day-to-day operations. I would say that small businesses typically add another critical component – if they’re going to invest in communications, it absolutely must improve customer service. After all, that’s how many smaller companies differentiate themselves.

 

Small businesses, by virtue of their size, are more nimble than larger businesses. They often rely on that speed to compete with bigger brands or local businesses. So, to a small business, UC is a way to differentiate themselves and demonstrate both a professional image and a service quality that will cultivate loyalty among their customers. One thing to note, though, is that they don’t call it unified communications and few are even familiar with the term. They do know what they need and that’s what we focus on.

 

We’re getting a lot of interest in Avaya UC from small business customers because we focus on where small businesses can cut and control costs. And, clearly, cost control – particularly in the current economic climate – is critical to smaller companies.

 

For example, one of our small business customers with Avaya UC expects to save $30,000 in the first year alone, just by eliminating the need to reimburse remote and home-based workers with residential phone service. We also take our small business customers through a scenario that shows how a typical small business can use Avaya UC to save: an estimated $8,960 per year in minimizing lost productivity; from $900 to $1500 annually in monthly call expenses, by switching to using fixed-fee, high speed Internet access for their calls; and $90,000 by avoiding a move to a new location because they can add staff that can work remotely.

 

These savings are based on a model of a small business that is a high quality women’s apparel and accessories company with about $3 million in revenue and around 40 employees, most of whom work at the headquarters and warehouse facility. The company has three buyers who cover Milan, London and Paris, five sales reps in North America, and three customer service reps who work from home.

 

 

Raj Sonty: We don’t see them relying on it per se, but it’s an opportunity. SIP trunking and services open the door for a reseller to reduce the customer’s calling plan expenses. Since this contributes to the overall ROI of a communications solution, it’s a good thing for all of us.

 

Where it is makes strategic sense for us to do so, we are working with SIP service providers who are bringing SIP services to customers. For example, last year, we announced that we are working with Cbeyond (News - Alert). Its “BeyondVoice with SIPconnect” service, an integrated package of local and long distance voice, broadband Internet and mobile services, is interoperable with IP Office. By using Avaya IP Office and Cbeyond’s BeyondVoice with SIPconnect, businesses are able to improve voice quality and decrease maintenance costs by connecting to the public network without the need for TDM gateways. Companies can also affordably link multiple locations in a single network and share the same communications features and applications company-wide, and that new direct dial extensions can be created on demand, eliminating the need for costly Primary Rate Interface service and the sometimes lengthy waits involved when new lines are installed.

 

 

Raj Sonty: In the SMB space, we also see these businesses dealing with fuel prices and the slow economy but telepresence is not how we’d answer that problem today. While it’s part of our strategy, it’s more of a specialized solution for businesses with high travel expenses. To help SMBs today, what is very relevant is a telework solution. It’s a real alternative to enable a small business to help its employees and help itself. 

 

We conducted our own study on this and found that 90 percent of the small businesses we surveyed wanted to enable their people with a telecommuting solution if it could maintain productivity. We think answering this need effectively has big potential in the space.

 

 

Raj Sonty: Although it’s not our policy to disclose exact market share, or growth projections, I can tell you that the SMB space is one of Avaya’s three core businesses and competencies. The other two are contact centers, and unified communications. Our objectives are very clear and SMB is key to delivering on them.

 

 

Raj Sonty: We focus on the issues that concern small business owners – soaring costs, lost productivity, limited office space, lagging customer responsiveness and service, and lack of accessibility to employees when they’re out of the office – and create applications that address and solve these issues. With Avaya IP Office, Avaya provides the leading hybrid solution (digital and IP) that gives small businesses the strongest migration and investment protection delivery. Our solutions are proven (more than 1.3 million Avaya Partner Advanced Communication Systems sold worldwide and more than 130,000 Avaya IP Office sold worldwide) and we build them especially for the small and medium sized office. This is important, since as the SMB market has specialized needs and our value to them is that we know and address those needs. These are the elements that we bring to the table for small companies.