A workshop “AVAYA Roadmap: new products from Avaya & Nortel” was held in Kiev. It was supported by the Ukrainian trade and technology company (UTTK). The workshop was attended by Illya Pervushin, Miratech Project Manager, Alexey Zhurochkin, Miratech Vendor Partnerships Manager, and Alexey Perekatov, Miratech Vice President, Corporate Marketing. The workshop’s focus and its format were largely due to recent changes affecting both Avaya-Nortel, and its customer base – changes which are necessary and, for the most part, positive. The workshop, the fourth one organized as the follow-up to the Avaya Roadshow held earlier this year in Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk and Kharkov, was hosted by Avaya in direct cooperation with Polycom – the world’s leading manufacturer of video conferencing equipment, and Avaya’s strategic partner (Polycom products often are an integral part of solutions offered by corporation).

This activity is part of the overall Avaya-Nortel action towards the promotion of new telephony solutions through its partnership network. It is also in line with the Avaya-Nortel joint partnership program entitled Avaya Connect, for which the corporation plans a Ukrainian roll out in April this year, as well as discussion of how it can benefit Avaya-Nortel domestic partners. Attended mainly by business partners of telecommunications giant, the workshop was successful with participation. Keynote lectures were aimed to increase awareness of Avaya-Nortel partners about the need to implement unified solutions suited to specific requirements of the end user. The report entitled “How to sell Avaya solutions for SMB-based IP Office” by Vladimir Yaroslavskiy (Avaya) has received appreciation for the most sensible and profound approach to this topic.

By Alexey Perekatov the technical aspects of Avaya-Nortel merge were said to be of the utmost importance: “The main concern of the alliance remains the transition to a joint software solution that will enable not only to retain the existing customer base, but to expand it through technologies, which differ today from supplier to supplier – with a view to migrate to a fully unified product in the future. As for the Avaya-Nortel partnership network, I believe that there is huge potential in this area which still remains unfolded. How those practical benefits will come out, time will tell.”