Avaya to ride China's edge in emerging tech

China is playing a vital role in the global economy and technological innovation, and has become the most active market for the latest technologies across the globe, said Lily Fu, managing director of Avaya China, a leading provider of business communications, collaboration systems and related services.

"At present, the rapid growth of China's economy and the diversified demands of Chinese customers have bolstered the boom in various types of local enterprises that are engaged in emerging technologies," Fu said.

She reiterated Avaya's strong commitment and confidence to make investments in the world's second-largest economy.

"The Chinese market is of great significance to Avaya in terms of sales revenue, and presents huge business growth opportunities for us," Fu said.

"We have seen the Chinese government's strong support for emerging technologies and innovative enterprises."

Fu said China is at the forefront of technological development, and this makes her optimistic about Avaya's development potential in China.

She said Avaya has increased investment in improving and cultivating the technical ability of Chinese employees, and strengthened cooperation with local high-tech companies such as AliCloud and Alibaba Damo Academy in the establishment of joint ventures for laboratories, and Chinese internet search giant Baidu Inc in artificial intelligence.

In September, Avaya announced it has worked with the AliCloud, the online cloud computing unit of Alibaba Group, to introduce the enterprise intelligence service center so as to accelerate AI applications in the cloud computing sector.

The partnership comes as demand for cloud-based customer hotline solutions continues to grow among organizations running large-scale contact centers. Market consultancy Gartner predicts that by 2022, contact center as a service will be the preferred adoption strategy for 50 percent of contact centers globally.

According to Fu, the company has successfully completed the transformation from a telecom equipment manufacturing company to a software and service provider, as "nearly 90 percent of its global revenue comes from software and services".

It is accelerating the transformation toward software-as-a-service, or SaaS, and actively embracing emerging technologies like AI, big data and cloud computing.

Avaya also helps in accelerating the digital transformation of Chinese enterprises. The company brought the contact center technologies to China in late 1990s, and helped Chinese telecom operators and financial services industry establish new business models.

"The challenge and speed of digital transformation of small, medium and large-sized enterprises in China are different. Especially for many traditional enterprises, digital transformation has posed some difficulties in technical talent and ability, time cost and capital input," Fu said.

They have seen there is a large number of traditional Chinese enterprises that need digital transformation to achieve business change, Fu said. For them, Avaya offers intelligent contact centers that are powered by AI and big data, as well as digitalized and mobile collaborative communication. The aim is to help them realize digital transformation.

International Data Corp, a global market consultancy, said China's expenditure on digital transformation is estimated to reach $1.5 trillion in the 2021-24 period, with an average annual growth rate of 17 percent.

As of 2025, the digital economy is expected to account for 70 percent of the country's gross domestic product, it said.

The country's call for accelerating the construction of "new infrastructure" projects like 5G networks and data centers will bring about new and enormous opportunities to Avaya, Fu said.

"We have a large number of enterprise users in China, and they have new requirements for the entire communication capability and platform in the process of participating digital transformation and new infrastructure."

According to a new report released by global marketing consultancy Accenture, Chinese companies should continue to accelerate digital transformation and drive innovation relentlessly to improve their overall business performance.

Zhu Wei, chairman of Accenture in China, said, "The digital economy is growing fast in China. Companies with top-notch digital maturity can better manage risks and navigate market changes. When applying new technologies, Chinese companies should build up digital proficiency across their core business and processes."