Avaya Partner Conference in Las Vegas Recap

By Jon Alperin | 20 Oct 2010

The sweetest sound I've heard this week at the Avaya 2011 Global Sales and Americas Partner Conference here in Las Vegas hasn't been the "ding, ding, ding" of the slot machines, or the call of "Pay the winner" at the table games. It's been a simple little phrase I've heard dozens of times from Avaya sales, Avaya Connect channel partners and Avaya DevConnect technology partners alike.

"I'll call you..."

For a company in the communications space, there is nothing better than the continued realization that spoken communication, real conversations between individuals, remains one of the most powerful and effective experiences we can have in a journey towards success.

With over 5000 attendees at the conference, it's been a great oppotrunity for me to catch up with partners and sales teams from around the globe. And in each case, the discussions always end in a similar manner.

"I'll call you."
"I'll speak to you next week."
"I'll have so-and-so call such-and-such to move this forward."

Voice is immensely powerful. Email, IM, micro-blogging, and even this blog you are reading are great tools for collaboration. But the power of having a conversation, making a phone call, drives a deeper, personal connection, and really offers results. It's too easy to hide behind the written word, to delay responding, to avoid a direct answer, to ignore the question you don't want to address. Spoken conversations don't give you those options. They require engagement. They ask for your attention and committment by their very nature.

I've watched the traffic at the demo stations for Avaya Flare™ and our new Avaya Desktop Video Device, and have seen the excitement as many of our channels and sales teams get their first hands-on experience with this new user experience, and its high-def, low-bandwidth video collaboration capabilities. And it's a game changer for most of them. "When can I get one?" "How can I get one?" "I want one now!" is often heard around the demo area. DevConnect partners have asked me how they can integrate elements of their portfolio into the video-enable Avaya portfolio.

And it's easy to understand why. We often cannot afford to have the face-to-face interactions with our peers, partners and customers, especially in a global marketplace. And email falls short in developing a meaningful personal relationship. So while voice remains the tool of choice, the addition of video bridges the gap with that highly personal face-to-face interaction, creating even deeper relationship, attention and trust.

And that drives even better payoff and results than you'll ever find on the casino floor.