BT signed a pan-European Avaya reseller agreement in 2004, and prior to this latest recognition BT was Avaya's first and only Gold Service Provider in the European region. The new partnership status highlights the strength of the joint service proposition, which combines Avaya's enterprise portfolio of IP telephony and communications applications and BT's international systems integration expertise.
Now, BT has over 100 network customers supported on the Avaya MultiVantage enterprise IP telephony platform, supported by over 150 Avaya certified engineers, solutions consultants and integration consultants from BT's Avaya Centre of Excellence.
Tom Craig, President, IP Networking, BT Global Services, said, "BT only began working with Avaya in April 2000, and yet in just five years we have become one of its primary channels to market in Europe. This latest accreditation underlines the strength of our position in the market and our ability to offer customers complete networked infrastructure services and true converged solutions from best of breed suppliers such as Avaya, Nortel and Cisco.
"The new status also benefits BT's own employees by providing a more structured training path for engineers working with Avaya technologies. It broadens opportunities for staff wanting to be trained in the three major vendor technologies and seeking to achieve externally recognised qualifications," said Craig.
"I believe that BT's achievement of Avaya Platinum Service Provider BusinessPartner status reflects the significant focus and resources that both companies have dedicated to the partnership," said Denzil Samuels, Vice-President and General Manager, Avaya Global Managed Services. "As part of a joint Fast Track Converged Communication training programme, more than 60 sales personnel have been trained at boot camps in Dublin, Ireland and Budapest, Hungary in the last eight months alone.
"Customers can be confident that when they source Avaya's enterprise IP and applications portfolio through BT, that they will receive the full scope of BT's service capabilities and expertise," Samuels said.