Communications solution provider Avaya is targeting a 15-20 per cent growth in its India operations. The growth is expected on the back of specialised solutions and a successful financial restructuring of its parent company, Avaya Inc.

Avaya Inc had previously filed for bankruptcy protection (under US laws) and was later able to work out a restructuring plan. The Silicon Valley-based company had faced challenges in trying to transition to software and services from a business centred on hardware, and failed to sell its call centre business, sources say.

According to Vishal Agrawal, MD, India and SAARC, Avaya, while there was no major fallout in terms of its India arm losing contracts, some of the large transformational deals went slow.

“Global customers opted for a wait and watch policy before handing out the contracts. So, there was some delay. But we did not lose contracts,” he told BusinessLine on the sidelines of Infocom 2017.

The company did see a slowdown in growth last year (October 2016-September 2017). Growth stood between 10 per cent and 12 per cent. India is amongst the top 10 geographies in terms of revenue contribution. “This year, we expect to clock a growth in the high teens; of 15-20 per cent,” he added.

Focus areas

According to Agrawal, growth areas would include specialised communication solutions targeting sectors like BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), government-to-citizen services, emergency-response services using multiple communication channels, including mobile and social media, and e-commerce and start-ups. Solutions will focus on facilitating machine-to-machine and human-to-machine communication issues using modern technologies such as analytics, blockchain (can act as a decentralised shared public ledger, keeping a record of all transactions taking place across a peer-to-peer network) and so on.

For Avaya, the scope of providing these solutions include niche banks such as payments banks, emergency responses like using dial-in numbers for help, use of offerings to provide citizen services or use in smart city solutions could be some sectors where Avaya’s technologies can be used.

Incidentally, the company is already working with the Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan government to provide an integrated and faster emergency response time to emergency calls.

In Uttar Pradesh, for example, the Dial 100 project was designed to provide integrated emergency services across the entire State on a 24x7 basis. Avaya established a centralised contact centre in Lucknow to facilitate faster response time and the ability to support more than 600 calls at any given time. The company is also in talks for some smart city contracts, but Agrawal said discussions were at a nascent stage.

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