Avaya to work with county governments to enhance communication

Avaya Inc a provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement across multiple channels and devices, has announced that they are currently working with five County Governments in Kenya to enhance unified communication in counties through their solutions.

This was said by Hatem Hariri, Managing Director for Avaya North, West, East and Central Africa (NWECA) during Avaya’s Engage Tour in Kenya, a roadshow attended by more than 150 government and enterprise customers and partners.

The tour is part of the “Avaya Engage Roadshow” across the company’s Global Growth Markets (GGM), encompassing the Middle East, Africa, Turkey, India, Russia, CIS, and Greater China. The roadshows aim to host an interactive dialogue between Avaya, its customers and partners, and deliver innovative ideas and solutions to the most pressing engagement challenges across the region.

Mr. Hariri however declined to mention the five counties they were working with as it is still work in progress but promised to disclose them at a later date.

With the Avaya’s unified communications solutions County Governments will be able to increase employee productivity, improve customer service and reduce costs by integrating multiple forms of communications, including telephony, e-mail, instant messaging and video.

With a presence of over four years in Kenya and Kenya being Avaya’s African Hub, Mr. Hariri also pointed out that in 2015 they are looking forward to introducing their new technologies in the Kenyan market including the solutions they showcased during the roadshow.

During the Roadshow, Avaya demonstrated a number of mobile engagement environments tailored to solve some of the most pressing business challenges in the country, and extending the access of Kenyans to government, healthcare, education and banking and telecommunication services, amongst others.

“Challenges are there in the Kenyan Market and even in Africa as a whole but as Avaya, we view the challenges as opportunities to expand our business by finding the solutions to address this issues,” said Hariri.

One of the mobile engagement solutions presented is the video-enabled, ATM like self-service kiosk, whereby customers of any bank in the country can transact with the bank’s call center, by video, virtual collaboration, email, social media, chat, SMS or phone, and to even switch between devices while talking to the same bank agent. With self-service kiosks, customers can instantly receive and securely apply for instant banking products and services such as, credit and debit cards, banking statements and loan applications, amongst others.

Avaya said that the self-service kiosks are one scenario of how mobile engagement environments can be created and tailored to solve specific business challenges. These environments are built on Avaya SmartEngage, a tailored combination of Avaya and third-party solutions and services, designed to enable Kenyans to work, learn, and transact from anywhere in the country, using any mobile, computing or wearable device.

Mobile engagement environments are set to accelerate the build-up of a connected Kenya, where businesses, governments and citizens engage in a seamless, mobile and video-enabled, multi-channel world, where services are available anytime, anywhere and on any device. Avaya is also working with a number of government bodies, telecom service providers, banks, airlines and educational institutions to modernize their communication infrastructure with the latest cloud-enabled, open standards, Customer and Team Engagement and Networking solutions. The company has also built a solid, experienced and reliable partnership model with some of the leading technology solutions providers in Kenya.

“When individuals talk, share, and see each other individually or in group, no matter how far or close they are in physical terms, they build strong and loyal relationships. Our mobile engagement environments would not only help accelerate the country’s modernization of services, but also enable teams to build strong and loyal relationships between teams within an organization and ultimately, drive incremental business returns and customer satisfaction,” said Hariri.

Avaya, is also set to work with Small and Medium Entreprises (SMEs) across the country to offer them communication solutions designed to meet communication challenges facing SMEs this will include the Avaya IP Office that will help simplify processes and streamline information exchange within systems. Avaya IP Office also connects to both traditional and the latest IP linesto give growing companies flexibility and the ability to retain and use their existing investment.