Avaya and HP Partner

Avaya and HP are logical partners. Their combined product portfolio clearly reveals Cisco as a major competitor. However, the two firms haven't tied the knot like many expected.

That's probably because of Avaya's Networking division which directly competes against both HP and Cisco. Avaya's networking products hold a small market share in the U.S., but contains some impressive technology. Avaya got into networking when it acquired assets from Nortel, which had previously acquired Bay Networks - which has origins back to WellFleet (Cisco's largest competitor in the 90s).

Avaya considers its networking technologies key to its success with products that enable SDNs, data center switching fabrics, shortest path bridging (SPB), and wireless. It believes it has competitive advantages both financially and technically and is seeing improved traction in selected segments, particularly abroad.

Meanwhile HP has cozied up to Microsoft Lync in a variety of ways including HP-branded Lync hardware including gateways, servers, and phones; and a variety of Lync specialized services. HP recently demonstrated a proof of concept that tightly integrates its SDN capable switches to Lync's servers.

The fit between Avaya and HP seems too strong to ignore as indicated by two recent changes. First, Avaya added SYNNEX as a new distributor. SYNNEX is the largest HP reseller, something Karl Soderlund, VP of Americas Channels, was well aware of as he previously held a leadership position at HP Procurve. He indicated that Avaya's UC and contact center solutions fill a gap for many HP resellers. This new relationship provides SYNNEX resellers access to solutions that capitalize on several significant technology trends for improving collaboration in businesses, including: UC, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Cloud/Virtualization, and Mobility.

Then, last month HP announced its new HP Customer Engagement as a Service (CEaaS) offer that combines HP's enterprise cloud capabilities with Avaya's contact center technologies. The HP CEaaS solution enables organizations to add social media, mobile tools, and analytics into a single contact center. It's a synergistic solution that pulls key capabilities from each firm to deliver improved multichannel customer interactions.

"Enterprises looking to augment existing infrastructure investments need the ability to quickly and easily activate multichannel contact center capabilities through a cloud-based delivery model," said Mark de la Vega, vice president of Global Contact Center Solutions at Avaya. "When HP CEaaS is combined with Avaya Collaborative Cloud solutions for customer experience management, clients are able to create customer experiences that build brand loyalty."

These two firms working together should be good for both of their bottom lines. If these programs are successful, it is likely we will see additional partnering between HP and Avaya.