As we emerge from the pandemic, an economic reality has come into focus. How we eat, how we exercise, how we learn, how we work, and everything in-between has changed. The evolution of business has become a digital revolution. We no longer simply collect a basket of ingredients; fully prepared meal kits are delivered to our homes empowering a more elevated dining experience. For years we purchased exercise equipment; now we buy exercise bikes bundled with live instructors and membership in a community that drives us to be our best. Work is no longer somewhere we go; it’s something that we do.

This change describes what Gartner has coined “The Experience Economy”. Organizations have accelerated the evolution of their go-to-market strategy from simply selling goods and services, say a cup of coffee, to making the product secondary to the experience delivered. For example, a comfortable coffee shop that invites you to relax, to work, and meet others while you consume a cup of coffee that comes with premium price for which consumers happily pay. Every touchpoint where customers interact with the brand has become an opportunity to deliver a personalized and frictionless experience that surprises and delights.

Simultaneously, thanks to an incredibly competitive labor market, employees are stakeholders and how, where, and when they work is just as important to business planning.

When you combine the realization that the surface area where customers and employees are engaging with the undeniable change in business models and working methods, it’s clear a new strategy is necessary to support the business. So, how do they do it?

The answer lies in embracing Cloud 3.0. Cloud 3.0 enables organizations to thrive in the Experience Economy while unlocking an incredible revenue opportunity for channel partners, but only if they partner with the right vendor. 

What is Cloud 3.0.?

Cloud computing has undergone several iterations over the decades, each which has helped shaped business communications. In the communications space Cloud 1.0 centered around access (softphones, geographic redundancy, expanded carrier options). Cloud 2.0, focused on hosting and management as well as financial transformation, offered organizations the ability to “move to the cloud” (i.e., UCaaS, CCaaS, CPaaS). Cloud 3.0 is about transforming through the cloud by using it as a toolkit to seamlessly compose personalized communication experiences. Using the cloud as a toolkit to compose experiences on an interaction-by-interaction basis requires the flexibility of a converged Experience Platform rather than standalone services of Cloud 2.0 with limited integrations between disparate platforms.

What is Composability?

Disruptive technology should not require disruption to your business. A converged platform approach with composability at its core is malleable in nature, adjusting to the organization’s business processes versus forcing processes to compromise around the limitations of a cloud platform or app. This enables businesses to deliver personalized experiences that target granular, specific use cases – creating more memorable customer experiences. This does a 180 from restrictive, monolithic apps, which deliver generic experiences that target high-level use cases. 

This composability also provides the resiliency organizations need to handle unprecedented events, just like the one we’re still reeling from. Companies blindsided by the COVID-19 pandemic struggled to shift to a fully virtual model while handling explosive increases in call volume. Healthcare providers used the Avaya OneCloud Experience Platform to deploy virtual agents that prioritized calls and reduced stress on employees. Schools launched mass notification systems to deliver personalized communications to students and staff. Municipalities created a virtual waiting system for citizens needing to take care of basic tasks like driver’s license and passport renewals. These applications were spun up in a matter of days to start immediately improving outcomes, and enterprises only need to pay for the services they use. This consumption-based pricing model is a massive benefit, especially for businesses with tightly regulated or restricted funds. Applications are no longer speculative investments, made with the hope that customers will embrace them. Instead, a consumption-based model means the deployed experience MUST deliver consistent value to earn it’s keep. 

Why Avaya OneCloud 

Partnering with a vendor who recognizes this cloud evolution, and the value of composability is key. Avaya OneCloud stands uniquely alone as a Cloud 3.0-enabled converged Experience Platform, enabling businesses to easily create and deliver personalized experiences to, and between, customers and employees.  

The Avaya OneCloud™ Experience Platform – an award-winning portfolio of communication APIs, apps, and tools – is the cloud-based toolkit organizations can depend on to support their success in the Experience Economy. Avaya was one of the first in the industry to recognize the value of composability. We started with core communication services, empowered by our Media Processing Core, which is foundational for our overall innovation strategy and large developer ecosystem – Avaya Experience Builders. It’s important to note, however, that Avaya Experience Builders is more than just a community of developers. It’s a movement of visionaries, change-enablers, and citizen developers who are composing their own experiences and supporting their organizations’ success in the experience economy. It’s the true unlock.

Cloud 3.0 is the future of business for channel partners. See for yourself how you can strategize better and sell more using Avaya OneCloud here.