Avaya and Plantronics (NYSE: PLT) today announced a new co-development initiative to address the growing need for simplified communications in contact centre and unified communications (UC) environments. The first initiative under this expanded relationship is focused on ensuring compatibility and tight integration between select Plantronics headsets and Avaya's Chrome-based contact centre Apps, including Avaya Agent for Chrome and Customer Engagement OnAvaya™ --Google Cloud Platform. With this powerful combination in play, contact centre agents will enjoy seamless voice and non-voice interactions with customers, including chat, email, and SMS.

"Plantronics has been working diligently to align its classic endpoint business with solutions that make it easier for agents to positively engage with customers," said Nancy Jamison, principal analyst, Customer Contact Centre group, Frost & Sullivan. "Expanding the partnership with Avaya, with its similarly attuned mission, will go a long way in moving the needle on customer engagement."

According to a recent survey by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI),1 71 percent of contact centre leaders believe that difficulties with systems and inefficiency of tools are top contributors to agents' workday stress. The report also noted that being equipped with the necessary resources to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently had the greatest positive impact on performance.

"The number one requirement our customers look for is simplicity and ease of use," said Mark Monday, vice president and general manager of Team Engagement Solutions at Avaya. "Increasingly, our customers come to us asking how Plantronics and Avaya can collaborate to create a better engagement experience. Through this partnership, Avaya and Plantronics are integrating multichannel collaboration capabilities with business processes and applications for an effortless engagement experience for our customers."

"Both Avaya and Plantronics share a common vision to provide an improved communication experience
on joint solutions, which we believe delivers value to our customers," said Joe Burton, executive vice president and chief commercial officer, Plantronics. "The co-developed solutions will help streamline access to multichannel communications, making it a more natural, intuitive experience for people who may or may not spend their days at a desk. Our long partnership, which marries the best capabilities of both companies, will give Avaya customers solutions with unique and differentiating features to help them work more effectively and efficiently."

Avaya and Plantronics have a long-standing partnership that spans decades. During this time the companies have developed a deep level of technological integration that has helped fuel contact centre innovation and create enhanced audio and video experiences for businesses. Most recently, the companies released the Seamless transfer snap-in as part of the Avaya Engagement Assistant, which enables people using a Plantronics' sensor-enabled Voyager Legend UC headset, to fluidly transition from a mobile call to a video-enabled Avaya Scopia desktop session without losing audio. The solution leverages Plantronics' proximity APIs with the Avaya Engagement Development Platform (EDP) and is an example of how developers can create custom integration in minutes using standards-based APIs and the Avaya EDP.

"As an early adopter of Customer Engagement OnAvaya—Google Cloud Platform, we see this collaboration between Avaya and Plantronics as a win for Summertime Potato Company," said Susan DeFazio, director of business processes, Summertime Potato Company. "Our business is all about personal relationships, and in a small business such as ours, our team members wear various hats. Moving to a cloud environment will give us the flexibility to multi-task while interacting with our customers and suppliers, and the tighter integration of our contact center solution and headsets means less potential downtime and support issues."

To learn more about the Avaya/Plantronics Partnership, please visit these resources:
• Watch: Plantronics Audio Solutions for Customer Engagement OnAvaya –Google Cloud Platform
• Watch: Imagine with Plantronics
• Read: Avaya+Plantronics Solutions Page
• Read: Avaya and Plantronics: Customer Satisfaction, Smarter Customer Service