New Avaya Partner Program Gives Resellers the “Edge” to Succeed

New Avaya Edge Partner Program Expands Rewards, Streamlines Requirements, Aligns to the Digital Business Imperatives

Santa Clara, Calif. - Nov. 1, 2016 - Avaya today announced a new streamlined channel  program that better equips partners to thrive in a software and services industry and provides greater rewards for demonstrating customer centricity by delivering exceptional value. This new program—Avaya Edge^SM— will help drive mutual profitability and help ensure partners possess the expertise required to provide the transformative solutions customers need in the digital marketplace.

Key elements of the program include:

• Simplified Structure: Streamlined requirements and new gem designation levels—Diamond, Sapphire and Emerald—reduce complexity and the resources needed for partners to manage the program. For example, the Avaya Edge reduces the amount of time partners previously required to complete credentials by up to 50%, and partner co-delivery performance metrics have been reduced 56%.
• Greater Benefits: Partners are now compensated for a broader scope of revenue, including not only hardware/product sales as well as recurring services and software. In addition, new incentives will reward partners for strategic areas of achievement, such as customer value, growth and new product adoption.
• Flexibility: The new program is better structured to accommodate and adapt to ever-changing industry, customer and partner dynamics. The introduction of five partner tracks aligns with their go-to-market model, and maps partner revenue targets and rewards based on track and geographic region.

The new program is in effect as of October 1, 2016. To support the transition, existing authorized partners are evaluated under both the previous and new programs and awarded at the higher level for the first six months. 

Quotes
“The strength of a channel program is the degree to which it enables the success of its partners, recognizes and applauds their unique capabilities as they apply them to serve our customers. This means the program needs the flexibility within a supportive structure that reduces requirements to only those that are most essential. I believe the new Avaya Edge program accomplishes this and enables our channel partners to capture share through the transition of the market and Avaya.”
Steve Biondi, Vice President and Global Channel Chief, Avaya   

"Like many organizations today operating in a rapidly evolving environment, Avaya is updating its channel partner program to one that is more in line with the world of software and services. The company has worked diligently with key partners, including the Avaya Partner Community Council, to ensure partners are kept abreast of the plan as it develops and have the opportunity for feedback. This open communication has been important to ensuring the new "Edge" program is a change for the better and its success. Telanet and PCC Americas are glad to have been part of this process.”
Dan Silverman, Chairman, PCC Americas and President,Telanet Canada Inc.

“The new Avaya Edge program enables partners to differentiate across the channel community based on the individual partner’s strengths and capabilities, and thus enhancing the channel’s value."
John Lyons, president and CEO, Enterprise, ConvergeOne

“The communications industry has moved towards a software-based approach and away from bespoke PBXs. Vendors that utilize channels as a primary route to market need to focus on helping their partners to reinvent themselves to meet their customers’ needs. Avaya’s new Edge program is an example of a vendor that is re-orienting its partners by monitoring how the industry is transforming, responding to customer feedback,  and evolving their programs accordingly. Consequently, this approach enhances Avaya’s partners’ ability to compete and differentiate in the marketplace.”
Tim Banting, Principal Analyst- Collaboration and Communications, Current Analysis

About Avaya
Avaya enables the mission critical, real-time communication applications of the world’s most important operations. As the global leader in delivering superior communications experiences, Avaya provides the most complete portfolio of software and services for contact center and unified communications with integrated, secure networking— offered on premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid. Today’s digital world requires some form of communications enablement, and no other company is better positioned to do this than Avaya. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology.  We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these are reasonable, such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

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