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Avaya has won a five-year contract with the Australian Department of Defence for contact centre services.
Defence currently has 14 contact centres with 650 employees servicing over 40 lines of business and under the contract, the centres will be consolidated and migrated to Avaya's omni-channel platform with the help of Telstra.
The solution is expected to allow Defence to expand its automation and analytics capabilities, providing a more efficient and personalised experience for the people who interact with any of the contact centres.
Contact centre agents will have visibility into combined data sets, allowing them to deliver personalised interactions ranging from tickets for desktop support to more sophisticated issues related to Defence business lines.
Also, as a result, operators will be able to resolve issues at first point of contact, a significant improvement to current Defence capability.
A Defence spokesperson told ARN that this deal is part of JP2047 Terrestrial Communications Project that Defence is undertaking an upgrade to the Avaya platform. This is a multi-phased project to maintain and improve the Defence network communications infrastructure.
"The JP2047 Terrestrial Communications Project was awarded to Telstra on 31 May 2018. The upgrade will be managed by Telstra, using an integrated team comprising Avaya and Telstra technicians," the spokesperson told ARN.
Defence did not reveal the value of the deal.
This contract was not awarded via the usual tender process, but through a hotly-contested contract which Avaya won as a result of successful engagement with Defence around its requirements to deliver personalised experiences.
“The migration to a centralised environment for each of its contact centres creates the opportunity for Defence to get closer to its ‘customers’ – whether they are employees across its various departments or external parties – than ever before," said Peter Chidiac managing director of Australia and New Zealand at Avaya.
"Once the transition is complete, Defence will be able to combine automation and analytics to provide personalised experiences to all stakeholders."
In January, Avaya unveiled its newly formed organisation focused on driving cloud products and services, called Avaya Cloud.
Former IBM vice president of strategic partners for cloud and Watson platforms, Mercer Rowe, has been appointed to lead the new cloud business as vice president and general manager of Avaya Cloud. At IBM, Rowe led global cloud and artificial intelligence initiatives.
In Australia, Avaya bulked up its ranks naming no fewer than eight new appointments and promotions in its local operations.
Article updated at 11:44PM on 22 August to include comment from the Department of Defence.
