What does the future hold for support and management of communications environments? It’s a question we often hear at Avaya, from our clients, our business partners, analysts and the media. They want to understand how the rapid introduction of new technologies, the relentless demand for communications availability and reliability, and the constant pressure to do more with less will shape the communications support and management world in the months and years ahead.

1. What does the future hold for support and
management of communications environments?
It’s a question we often hear at Avaya, from our
clients, our business partners, analysts and the media.
They want to understand how the rapid introduction
of new technologies, the relentless demand for
communications availability and reliability, and the
constant pressure to do more with less will shape
the communications support and management
world in the months and years ahead.
To get a fresh, informed view of the services landscape, we turned to
Michael Runda, Avaya senior vice president and president of Avaya
Client Services. Here, Mike offers his thoughts on the forces at play in
the marketplace for support and management of communications
environments, the types of services that businesses will need and expect,
and the capabilities that will distinguish world-class services organizations.
Mike, what market dynamics and business needs
will shape world-class communications support
and management going forward?
First, ongoing technology development will continue to provide organiza-
tions and individuals with new, more powerful communications capabilities.
But the complexity that accompanies these innovations is making it harder
for IT leaders to keep up. Finding people who have the talent and training
to manage these new environments is a growing challenge. And IT budgets
are likely to remain tight amid ongoing economic pressures, even as users
demand the latest and greatest capabilities. As a result, any deployment
of new technology will include aggressive goals for return on investment,
including the mitigations of ongoing support and management expenses,
including both hard and soft costs.
avaya.com | 1
Communications services:
Challenging the status quo
A vision for the future, a path to get there
Any deployment of new
technology will include
aggressive goals for return
on investment, including
the mitigations of ongoing
support and management
expenses, including both
hard and soft costs.

2. Another major factor is the growing user demand for features and functions
that were barely imaginable just months ago. A prime example of this is
the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend. Employees in organizations of all
sizes are taking their own tablets and smartphones into the workplace and
using them to collaborate and handle business matters. This presents both
opportunities and challenges for organizations. On the plus side, like social
media, BYOD can contribute to creating a highly collaborative environment,
involving both employees and customers. At the same time, you need
to wrap these new devices into your overall support and management
structure in a way that minimizes the effects of the added complexity and
keeps the electronic environment safe and secure from intrusions, hacks
and unauthorized information access.
Also influencing the communications management environment is the rapid
adoption of video. High-definition video communications with colleagues
and customers is no longer expensive, bandwidth-intensive, and only found
in conference rooms. Instead it’s right there on our smartphones, tablets,
laptops and desktops. Video demand is soaring as people realize the potential
to communicate more fully by sharing facial expressions, body language and
other nuances. And instead of gathering people physically, personal devices
allow it to happen virtually, which leads to greater participation. Also, IT
doesn’t need to get involved, and the business enjoys substantial savings
in time, travel and cost.
Finally, the growing complexity of communications technology increases
the need for advanced diagnostics. Technology stacks are getting thicker
and more often include elements from different suppliers. Organizations
will need better diagnostic tools and techniques to stay up and running
and respond to outages quickly in these multivendor environments.
Technology stacks are getting thicker and more often
include elements from different suppliers. Organizations
will need better diagnostic tools and techniques to stay
up and running and respond to outages quickly in these
multivendor environments.
avaya.com | 2

3. Given these dynamics, what types of support and
management capabilities will businesses look for
from service providers?
If you think about trends described above — growing complexity, increasing
budget constraints, BYOD, the emergence of video, and the need for
faster problem diagnosis and resolution — the first line of defense from
a communications support and management perspective is a company’s
IT organization. Of course, those organizations have varying types of skills
and expertise. So they’re trying to figure out how to meet the growing
needs of the business by leveraging their strengths and bridging skill gaps
in areas of weakness. This dynamic is driving their needs and expectations
for support and management — they want to buy only what they need.
That’s one reason we keep evangelizing for the Information Technology
Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standard. An IT organization’s capabilities
may vary by application or by segments such as communications, core
infrastructure and business systems. The end-to-end service definitions
in ITIL provide an instruction manual that can be applied to all of these.
Based on their identified needs, businesses will then decide what type of
communications support and management services they require. Can they
get by with just core maintenance services, calling in help when something
is broken and needs to be fixed? Do they enter into a broader support
agreement in which a vendor plays a more proactive role in infrastructure
support, maintenance and upgrades? Or do they opt for a managed services
arrangement, turning over part or all of their communications infrastructure
to a service provider? This last approach is rapidly gaining traction as
organizations recognize the risks of investing in infrastructure to stay current
in the technology arms race. Rather than incur these capital expenses and
continue to battle the expanding skills gap, more organizations are shifting
to an operating expense model and turning the whole process over to a
provider that can absorb the costs of technology upgrades and maintain
the skills needed for more complex communications environments.
A key factor influencing client decisions will be multivendor environments.
With devices, equipment and services coming from several sources — think
of BYOD and video as rapidly emerging examples — it will be increasingly
Managed services are
rapidly gaining traction.
Rather than incur these
capital expenses and
continue to battle the
expanding skills gap, more
organizations are shifting
to an operating expense
model and turning the
whole process over to a
provider that can absorb
the costs of technology
upgrades and maintain
the skills needed for more
complex communications
environments.
avaya.com | 3

4. important, and challenging, that clients have a single point of contact for
problem diagnosis and resolution. Service providers will need either to
develop the ability to work across platforms and vendors or to cede the
role to someone else.
Another client requirement isn’t new, but the refrain is growing stronger:
Know me. Few things are more frustrating for clients needing support than
having to repeatedly describe a problem to different people. Instead, they
want a provider to understand their environment, know what they have
installed, recall the last questions they asked, and be ready to make the
upgrades they want in the future.
Along with understanding their environment better, customers want service
providers to deliver faster, more accurate problem diagnosis and resolution.
As technologies become more complex, problems are more likely to be
system-wide rather than in a single component. They can emerge from the
network, an application, an end user or a configuration file — and from any
vendor’s product. Because of this, a product specialist often can’t resolve
a problem alone, but may also need the involvement of system architects
and other specialists who have application or multivendor knowledge and
capabilities.
In this demanding environment, what will
distinguish great support and management
services from the merely good?
First, leading service providers will understand the dynamics of the
marketplace — growing complexity, multivendor environments, the
emergence of BYOD and mobility, and the other trends noted earlier —
and align their services accordingly. A prominent example of this is
multivendor environments. Almost every enterprise client we encounter
has a complex multivendor environment, with equipment of all ages and
often from different manufacturers. A great managed services provider
will offer solutions with service level agreements covering the entire
communications environment. In our experience, not many can do this.
Few things are more
frustrating for clients
needing support than
having to repeatedly
describe a problem
to different people.
Instead, they want a
provider to understand
their environment, know
what they have installed,
recall the last questions
they asked, and be ready
to make the upgrades
they want in the future.
avaya.com | 4

5. Leaders will also earn the confidence of their clients. Whether they provide
maintenance, deliver support services or assume managed services
responsibilities, service leaders will become trusted advisors that stay
engaged and serve as an extension of their clients’ IT organizations and
business units.
Great support and management services will also mean a portfolio of offers
spanning the entire continuum of service issues that clients face today and
in the future — issues stemming from the trends discussed here. What will
catapult service providers into the lead will be the ability to help customers
understand where they are on that continuum and the flexibility to deliver
the most appropriate solutions for their problems.
A useful analogy for this is a hospital. A person who comes into the
emergency room complaining of chest pains may have had a heart attack,
or perhaps not. Instead of immediately calling in a heart surgeon, the hospital
staff immediately performs advanced diagnostic workups to pinpoint the
source of the chest pain and quickly and effectively proceeds to the treatment
that provides the best possible outcome for the patient. The same approach
applies in a communications support and management environment. When
a problem arises, a service provider with advanced capabilities and clear
visibility into the client environment can rapidly run a series of diagnostic
checks, which may reveal that the problem isn’t with an application as
suspected, but was triggered by the network. And, by the way, the
diagnostics may reveal other hidden issues that need to be resolved, as well.
The single-point-of-contact approach is critical to making this possible.
But that capability requires work, investment and relationships. The process
is complex and requires upfront investment to troubleshoot problems in
different environments. A service provider has to be willing to reach out
to other vendors and establish rapport with them. Then, when necessary,
a service representative can assemble, or “swarm,” a team of specialists
to quickly assess a problem and suggest a resolution. This approach can
pay off for providers and clients alike, as clients seek to make support and
management activities an operating expense instead of a capital expense.
And, not only do clients bypass the complexity and problems, they have
access to new technologies as they become available.
Great support and
management services will
also mean a portfolio of
offers spanning the entire
continuum of service
issues. What will catapult
service providers into the
lead will be the ability to
help customers understand
where they are on that
continuum and the
flexibility to deliver the
most appropriate solutions
for their problems.
avaya.com | 5

6. Another vital trait of leading providers will be customer intimacy — the ability,
when a client says “know me,” to respond “yes we do.” If we know the client
well enough, support becomes more consultative. For example, we should
know enough about a client’s environment through automation and other
advanced systems to uncover a potential issue and fix it without ever involving
the client. But because of that predictive capability, we can recommend
adding services that will prevent such problems from recurring, improve
efficiency and boost performance.
Video can also play a key role in service quality and client relationships.
It can strengthen customer ties by helping clients and the service provider
get to know one another better. And it can be used to resolve issues, an
especially valuable capability for small or midsized business facing support
issues. For example, on-site cameras can be used to diagnose physical
hardware issues without a technician needing to be dispatched to the site.
One of the biggest frustrations clients encounter is hearing that we knew
about that problem and had the answer. The customer may rightly ask,
“Then why did I have to experience it?” Our support vision is to have humans
work on only new problems; let automation and advanced systems resolve
existing problems when they occur. Already, through a new Avaya program,
when a customer contacts a service agent through any channel, the agent
first looks at our knowledge base to see if there’s an answer to the client’s
question. This process eliminates 80 percent of the direct labor required to
address many client issues.
We also see the growing use of avatars to help clients deal with support
issues. Leveraging search technology and artificial intelligence, avatars can
assist clients in finding known solutions to problems. Clients can then rank
the solutions, service agents can review them, and the best ones can be
detailed in articles made available to other clients. The result is a feedback
loop that enables agents to get knowledge out rapidly in a format that’s
accessible and usable by a client base. This makes clients happy and fosters
pride among the agents generating the solutions. Avatars can also be used
to initiate collaborative problem solving, with live experts brought in as
needed. Contextual support, pulling in all data relevant to a customer’s
problem, is a key to resolving issues rapidly.
Our support vision is to
have humans work on
only new problems;
let automation and
advanced systems
resolve existing problems
when they occur.
avaya.com | 6

7. avaya.com | 7
A global leader in communications support and
management services
Avaya has long been in the forefront of developing, deploying and, importantly,
supporting communications systems. We have contributed to the emergence of
new technologies, including the recent, explosive growth of mobile and
collaborative solutions, and we have become the market leader in communications
managed services,1
offering comprehensive communications infrastructure and
applications management enabled by our state-of-the-art Avaya Matrix
Management Platform.
Learn more
For more information about Avaya Client Services, including Global Support
Services, Managed Services and Professional Services, please contact your
Avaya Account Manager or visit us at www.avaya.com.
1
“North American Enterprise Telephony Implementation and Management Services Market,” Francisco Rizzo and Alaa
Saayed, Frost and Sullivan, December 2011.
About Avaya
Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions,
providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services
to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information, contact your Avaya
Account Manager or Authorized Partner or visit us at www.avaya.com.
© 2013 Avaya Inc. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all trademarks identified by the ®
, TM
or SM
are registered trademarks, trademarks or service marks,
respectively, of Avaya Inc.
01/13 • SVC7141