Five9 Vet Takes Reins of Avaya Cloud, UCaaS, CCaaS

Avaya has hired Gaurav Passi, previously with Five9, as president of Avaya Cloud, charged with overseeing cloud product development and R&D, operations, business development and product management for Avaya’s cloud-based unified-communications (UC) and contact-center (CC) offerings.

Reporting to Jim Chirico, Avaya’s president and CEO, Passi will be responsible for further accelerating the company’s delivery of cloud-based offerings and driving continued momentum to grow Avaya’s market share in UCaaS and CCaaS globally.

Avaya’s Gaurav Passi

“Leading Avaya’s cloud business is an exciting opportunity and I am eager to be working closely with the customers and a very talented Avaya team to rapidly advance our position driving innovation and digital transformation in the cloud,” Passi said.  “The company’s massive install base along with our ability to penetrate new markets and add new customers presents an unparalleled opportunity to extend our footprint as a major force in both UCaaS and CCaaS. Avaya will be the partner of choice for organizations of all sizes seeking the benefits of robust and scalable cloud-based communications solutions.”

Passi brings more than a decade of cloud-industry executive experience to Avaya. Most recently he served as executive vice president of products and technology at Five9, where he spearheaded the development, modernization and growth of the company’s contact center cloud offering. He also held senior leadership positions at Deutsche Telekom Hosted Business Services, Amdocs and Ciena.

“I am thrilled that Gaurav, a proven leader with an outstanding track record for driving success in cloud innovation, is joining Avaya,” Chirico said. “… Gaurav is the right person to accelerate our penetration in this key, strategic growth area of our business. His success in formulating and executing strategies, developing technology and building high-performing teams sets him apart from others in the industry. Gaurav’s addition to our leadership team will be invaluable as we double down on the multiple dimensions of cloud including public, private and hybrid solutions to unlock significant value for our customers and partners.”

For its fiscal third quarter that ended in June, Avaya had more than 3 million seats in the cloud across its private and public cloud offerings in UCaaS and CCaaS, and cloud-based solutions now represent about 11 percent of total revenue. Midmarket cloud monthly recurring revenue (MRR) grew 43 percent and enterprise cloud MRR grew 107 percent quarter over quarter during that same period, outpacing average industry growth rates, the company said.

In the last three quarters, Avaya has launched a public cloud storefront, a CCaaS offering for enterprise, a midmarket UCaaS multitenant offering and a cloud master agent program, and has begun extending its retail cloud offering to key international markets.