UC Battle Brewing: Cisco vs. Avaya

We’re getting used to thinking about unified communications as a battle primarily between Cisco and Microsoft. Not if Avaya has anything to say about it! Oh sure. Both Cisco and Avaya are well-known to be competitors in the unified communications space, but the message from Avaya’s 2007 analyst conference in Boston suggests the battle may be heating up. Avaya is promoting its Communications Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) strategy to channel partners and customers alike – and appears to be gaining some respectable penetration. I’m sure Avaya has a more focused description, but I would describe it as a CRM and PRM effort with additional vertical customization. Much of it leverages the offerings of their 6,000 DevConnect ISV partners. To that end, Avaya now has a major emphasis on solution selling for both direct and indirect sales, and is about to launch marketing efforts toward the SMB space. For the time being at least, the company reports 95% of its revenue comes from enterprise. That may change in coming quarters. So as Cisco, Avaya, and Microsoft jockey for position in UC, the term, “co-opetition,” may take on a whole new level of significance.