Avaya CEO Talks Enhanced RingCentral Team-Up, Partner Opportunity

Nearly two years into his tenure, Avaya CEO Alan Masarek continues to consider the former legacy player's future, forging a new path to varied streams of revenue that don't solely depend on its on-prem customers leveraging Avaya hardware.

Avaya customers continue to crave hybrid cloud offers, with Masarek taking the company in a new direction, joining forces with cloud-based players like Zoom. It recently renewed its five-year partnership with RingCentral, which now adds artificial intelligence capabilities over the top (OTT) of its on-prem hardware. 

The companuy also has fresh leadership in sales, hiring Pete Brant as senior vice president of Americas sales — while its channel also has relatively new leadership. 

The UC giant has a new CRO, Marylou Maco, who told Chanel Futures she's aligned with the channel and ready to soar to new heights with partners. She's been with Avaya for six months. 

CEO Masarek is no different in this sense, placing full faith in the Avaya channel and sales leadership team, hoping to diversify its portfolio even further with partnerships that make Avaya a more contemporary UC provider thanks to a swift embrace of hybrid cloud. 

Avaya's CEO shared that throughout the relationship with RingCentral, Avaya has converted 500,000 seats to the cloud, noting it has plans to bring many more seats to the model of which it has become fond.

See our slideshow above for our full discussion with Masarek, including his take on Microsoft Teams integrations, customer value, partner revenue and more.