Avaya announces Zoom strategic partnership for collaboration

In the wake of the launch of its new Workplace collaboration system, communications and collaboration tech company Zoom has forged a partnership with comms and customer experience provider Avaya to build a streamlined offer on the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform designed to deliver enhanced collaboration experiences to global enterprises.

Zoom believes Workplace will deliver new innovations to help businesses reimagine teamwork, facilitate connections, improve productivity and optimise flexible work experiences. It is built to elevate the Zoom experience with Zoom AI Companion so that all employees can be more productive, collaborate better and enhance their skills.

Working under Avaya’s strategic aim of providing “innovation without disruption” to deliver “exceptional” experiences to customers and employees, and drive measurable business growth, the collaboration will see Zoom Workplace integrated with Avaya’s Communication and Collaboration Suite. The aim is to enable interoperability between platforms and devices so users can work in Zoom Workplace while also taking advantage of their existing investments without disrupting investments in existing customisations, workflows or infrastructure.

Specifically, Avaya customers will have access to Avaya Aura and Avaya Enterprise Cloud solutions while working in Zoom Workplace, using features such as Zoom Team Chat, Zoom Scheduler, Zoom Whiteboard and flexible spaces. There will also be access to Zoom AI Companion, its generative AI digital assistant, which has also been enhanced to help users prepare for their workday, plus additional capabilities for Team Chat and Whiteboard.

“Today’s enterprises are seeking to benefit from the latest AI-powered innovations to help differentiate, accelerate and grow, all while integrating new levels of performance with minimal disruption to existing core systems,” said Avaya CEO Alan Masarek, commenting on the partnership. “By partnering with Zoom, we can deliver on the promise of ‘innovation without disruption’ for Avaya customers, providing added value to enterprises through world-class collaboration experiences within the Avaya platform.”

Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan added: “Zoom was built to offer a sophisticated yet easy-to-use product, and as Zoom has expanded to include hundreds more products and features, as well as generative AI integrated throughout, delivering an exceptional user experience is still core to who we are and something we continue to invest heavily in.

“Customers and partners like Avaya continue to look to Zoom to power their collaboration needs because of its speed of innovation and because it just works. We are excited to deliver that same experience to the thousands of Avaya customers who will benefit from a simple yet powerful way to collaborate.”

Avaya said the collaboration would recognise the Avaya Communication and Collaboration Suite experience path through on-premise, private cloud and public cloud deployments. The company also announced an expanded commitment to the Avaya Experience Platform (AXP), providing customers with a unified platform that encompasses Avaya customer experience solutions.