Avaya aims to increase partner base

Post acquisition of Radvision, Avaya is gearing up to address the mid market across the Indian subcontinent. The company is looking out for partners to add to its bandwagon for which it is conducting various channel engagement initiatives across the country.

Saurabh Singhal, country director, marketing, Avaya India said, "The latest acquisition has opened up a huge array of opportunities for us. With this, now our partners will be able to address a much wider and larger customer base and this will definitely boost their overall business."

With the onset of new financial year in October for Avaya, the company is working out strategies to reach out to newer partners and also to educate the existing partners about the new product-line. Singhal said, "We are focusing on recruiting new partners across the country and are looking at doubling our channel base in the country."

Avaya works with most of the leading tier 1 system integrators like Wipro, AGC Networks and many more. However, its is planning to add more partners in its tier 2 category wherein it has about 200 partners currently with two distributors, Redington and Beetel.

Singhal said, "Our aim is to enable our channel and allow them to recruit more partners. To facilitate this, we have introduced the concept of master reseller and as of today we have identified three master resellers across India." He further added, "We will be having a hub-n-spoke model, wherein a key partner will become the hub and he will cater to other partners in and around that region who will be the spokes."

Avaya is also rolling out a series of channel engagement activities. In the first phase, the company is conducting a seven city roadshow. Singhal said, "Mid market is only bound to grow and the opportunities are tremendous. We want our channel to be ready to address the requirements of this market. We are working a couple of engagement activities to enable our existing and new partners."

The company is planning to use its Pune based R&D center to conduct live demos and training camps. In addition, the company is devising structured and training programs for its channel partners. Singhal said, "We will be spending about 30-40% of our budget allocation for business development, channels, marketing initiatives and sales."