Channel Programs, Featured Post, Networking, Videos

Avaya 2011 Americas Partner Conference Preview [Video]

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Avaya channel partners are converging on Las Vegas Tuesday, ready for the networking vendor’s 2011 Americas Partner Conference at the MGM Grand here.

It’s been a year since Avaya announced it was going to tame its channel program from a cacophony of different Avaya and Nortel programs into the single, overarching Avaya Connect partner program.

Right before the show opened up with a welcome reception Tuesday afternoon, ChannelBuzz.ca sat down with Eileen Corrigan, Avaya’s senior director of worldwide channel strategy and development, and Mary Whittle, the company’s director of worldwide channel development and former Avaya Canada channel chief, to discuss what the company’s solution providers could expect at the show.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp2ffnxFuEQ

Here are some of the areas ChannelBuzz.ca is going to be digging into over the next 48 hours here in Vegas:

  • With the launch of the Flare Experience just weeks ago, “video” is almost sure to be the big word at the show. Expect Avaya to point its partners at that growing opportunity and provide new forms of enticement and enablement to make sure the channel is executing on what the company clearly sees as its biggest opportunity.
  • Integrating a big company like Nortel is always a tough undertaking. A year later, how’s the integration of the company’s products and channel partners going, and what has the company learned along the way?
  • How is Avaya differentiating its video approach from that of archrival Cisco? ChannelBuzz.ca has some time to speak with Joe Sigrist, who heads up Avaya’s video strategy, to discuss that and many other aspects of the solution provider video opportunity.
  • This will be Renzo Dipasquale’s debut event as Avaya Canada’s new channel chief, as well as Ross Pellizzari’s first Partner Conference as president of Avaya Canada. Expect to hear a lot from those two gentlemen about the company’s Canadian plans for 2011.

The show kicks off with a series of keynotes Wednesday morning, including channel chief Jeremy Butt and president and CEO Kevin Kennedy. Expect to see ChannelBuzz.ca updated regularly and tweeting away here once the event is underway and the WiFi coverage is plentiful. After all, if the network isn’t rock-solid at an Avaya show, partners have valid reasons to be concerned.