Avaya, Google in contact centre solutions pact

Avaya has teamed up with Google on contact centre solutions for businesses  reported.

Under the arrangement, Avaya's expertise in customer engagement technologies would be paired with Google's expertise in web applications and Chromebooks, destinationcrm.com reported.

The initial project would allow contact centres to set up new agents and supervisors in any location, ideal for managing peak or seasonal demands, as also for supporting business continuity, mobile and remote agent strategies.

Customer service agents would be able to access the Avaya contact centre agent desktop with Chromebooks through a WebRTC-enabled interface.

With the Avaya Agent for Chrome solution eliminates the need to download thick clients on individual agent endpoints is eliminated.

The project comes as the latest Avaya effort to leverage the WebRTC standard. Additionally, Avaya has plans to integrate Google Apps for Work in a number of areas to help speed collaboration and allow greater access to key materials shared by Avaya teams.

The company's technology is used by Google to power its global telephony infrastructure and drive its contact centre operations.

"Contact centers are highly dynamic, business critical, functional areas. The flexibility to quickly and cost-effectively equip customer service representatives during peak periods such as the holiday seasons, new product launches, and marketing campaigns can make a significant difference in capturing revenue and improving customer satisfaction," said Joe Manuele, vice president of global service providers, system integrators, alliances, and cloud at Avaya, in a statement.

"Our work with Google will allow companies to gain that flexibility and cost efficiency using our leading contact center capabilities delivered via our channel and service provider partners and accessible through Chromebooks."

Avaya hopes the offering would attract new clients and prompt its call centre software customers to upgrade their systems, especially those looking to move away from traditional Windows desktop PCs loaded with local software or to replace thin, virtualised clients, and thus simplify their infrastructure, PC World reported.

The partnership, by Google's expectations, would help spur demand for  Chromebook devices. Although Google does not make Chromebooks, the company generates revenue licensing and IT administration software for the devices.

Included in the Avaya-Google bundle are the Avaya Agent for Chrome software, and the Google Chrome management console. The bundle could be ordered now and would ship in the coming weeks.

It would be expected to start at $30 per concurrent user, per month, for a three-year subscription, or $900 for a perpetual license.