US Avaya Partner Conference - Day Two

By Jay Barta | 9 Nov 2011

As promised, here's more from Day Two at Avaya's US Partner Conference today in Vegas:

We issued two press releases this morning - one announcing key initiatives to build and recognize our channel partners' value (see press release here) and another naming our Channel Partners of the year (see press release here). Congratulations to the following:

• Enterprise Partner of the Year: NACR


• Greatest Growth in Acquiring New Enterprise Customers: Imagine


• Highest Overall Revenue from New Enterprise Customers: Integration Partners


• SME Partner of the Year: Synectic


• Data Partner of the Year: Carousel Industries


• Services Partner of the Year: Arrow S3


• Service Provider of the Year: AT&T

And here are some more quotes/thoughts from the conference:

"No one is more bullish then I am right now, Avaya is in the driver's seat." - Tom Mitchell, Senior Vice President and President, Avaya Go to Market

"We are having very different conversations. We are playing offense and putting points on the board every day." - Jeremy Butt, Vice president, Worldwide Channels

"Start with the customer and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try and sell it... It starts with 'What incredible benefits can we give to the customer? Where can we take the customer?'" - Ok, that's Steve Jobs, but Brett Shockley (our SVP of Corporate Development, Strategy and Innovation) used the point to reinforce his focus on innovation as a differentiator for Avaya.

And my favorite of the day... a photo of Alan Baratz demonstrating "weapons" that represent technologies that our competitors are "arming" our customers with that can be leveraged by Avaya:

And, here's a shot from our "Acceleration Lounge" at the event:

And finally, for those of you who'd like to read more, we've seen a ton of news coverage from the event - check out the following:

Avaya Channel Chiefs: New Partner Pricing Model A Year Out (CRN)

Avaya Channel Strategy Tilts Toward Full Portfolio Partners (CRN)

Avaya Mounting Massive Partner Recruitment Effort (CRN)

Avaya's Networking Business on Mission to Re-Energize Channel (Channel Partners)

Avaya Shifts Partners to Selling Solutions in Key Segments (The VAR Guy)

Avaya CEO To Partners: SIP Will Carry Us (CRN)

Avaya Partner Conference: Our SIP Bet is Paying Off (The VAR Guy)