By M. Rasidan, country director, Avaya Malaysia
From the iPhone 5, iPad mini, Samsung Galaxy Note to other Android tablets and mobile phones, 2012 saw a slew of new gadgets being launched throughout the year, further fueling the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) and Consumerisation of IT trends.
Companies across the Asia Pacific region seemed to act in line with the Gartner’s predictions that by 2013, 80 percent of businesses will support a workforce using tablets and enterprises offering appliance-level support for enterprise mail and calendaring.
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| M. Rasidan |
The rapid uptake of these new devices in 2012 led to greater enterprise mobility, where employees are now connected with both company-issued and personal devices, giving rise to challenges of integration, management and security of device usage. Businesses began looking more closely at Cloud solutions to align resources in a manner that boosts productivity and overall efficiency in their communication systems, further providing end-users with easy-to-use and personalized communication options.
With the abundant options now available and better accessibility to devices, consumers expect quicker service and turn-around from companies. Further fueled by the prevalent use of social media, companies increasingly deployed social platforms to improve customer service efficiency. In response to these challenges and changing customer needs, Avaya’s key innovations in 2012 were focused on delivering easy-to-use, mobile-enabled video collaboration solutions, enhanced customer service capabilities, better integrated Unified Communications solutions, and networking technologies to support easier access, increased security and virtualised environments.
2012 saw Avaya concluding the important acquisition of specialist video-conferencing company Radvision. This has enabled us to provide open, affordable and easy-to-use video collaboration solutions for companies of all sizes. And in August 2012, the Radvision Scopia XT5000 was named the most innovative new video system for 2012 by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan.
Another milestone for Avaya in 2012 was in the small and medium enterprise (SME) space where the need for scalability, mobility and cost-effective solutions are imperative. In line with this, the launch of Avaya’s IP Office 8.1 solution is helping companies effectively scale their communications systems in line with their business growth. Avaya IP Office has now been deployed by over 300,000 customers across the world.
At Avaya, we refer to the rapid enhancements in collaboration technology in terms of how they can deliver The Power of We – which is all about driving faster collaboration, smarter decision making for better business results. For many companies in Asia Pacific, 2012 was the year when their technology investments truly helped them to deliver The Power of We.
