Johnson said he was ‘very excited’ about the Silver Lake takeover of his company – a move he anticipates will be closed out in October and pave the way for significant investments.
Working to theme of ‘making it easier to business with Avaya, Johnson acknowledged there have been problems in the last 12 months – particularly on the supply side, but pledged to make things better. He noted that Avaya would be providing tools for the channel and new processes, channel marketing programmes and an overall increase in general brand awareness which would lead to more sales enquiries and sale leads.
Johnson said that Avaya was increasingly becoming a software and applications company and that the company would continue to move in that direction as it exploited their leading positions in the unified communications and call centre markets.
At the same event, Buddy Ceronie, Avaya’s Vice President for UK, Eire and South Africa, told delegates that the UK was a ‘key investment area for Avaya’.
Ceronie also acknowledged that his company had a reputation of not being easy to do business with but pledged to introduce simpler partner programme schemes.