Avaya is developing its xSP Member Network to produce customer synergy. Since all members are converged service providers, surely they can add to their product portfolio by networking with each other and via Avaya?

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Associate Editor [July 31, 2001]

If your annual Avaya equipment budget is $500,000 or more—or just one-fifth of one month's revenue if you charge $25 per subscriber and have 100,000 subscribers—and if you use Avaya Hosted Solutions or Avaya Applications Enabling Infrastructure, you will benefit from joining the Avaya xSP Member Network.

Lucent offshoot Avaya Inc., manufactures software for everything from telephones to customized enterprise-wide converged communications solutions. It also makes items like the Avaya P882 Multiservice Switch, which can handle up to 128 one-gigabit-per-second ports, and the DEFINITY series of servers that handle both voice and data. In essence, Avaya is a converged communications company.

In 2001, Avaya acquired VPNet Technologies, a virtual private network specialist, CyberIQ, switch and security specialist, and Quintus Corp. a customer relationship management (CRM) software firm.

Embracing x
The xSP Member Network supports service providers of various sizes from large carriers to small ASPs, ISPs, BSPs, and any other xSP imaginable. Member Network participants can qualify for training, joint marketing and branding programs, sales leads, and using the Avaya brand name as described below. Depending on the level of Avaya sales your xSP generates, and subject to Avaya approval, your company can qualify for a 50 percent rebate on specific advertising and marketing programs—up to $250,000 per fiscal year (October 1 through September 30).

Avaya dedicates specific sales and marketing teams to its xSP Member Network in virtually every region worldwide. Avaya divides its operations into four regions: Africa/Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim, Central and South America, and North America.

Avaya is sharing its sales tools and plans to promote the program through advertising and trade shows. The company hopes to establish trust among its members, so that service providers will want to be qualified, just to display the Avaya Member Network icon. It also hopes that members will participate in Partner Pavilions at trade shows and that they will launch joint seminars in partnership with Avaya.

Avaya has built interoperability and testing labs in which it hopes to study the integration of independently-developed applications into Avaya product suites, eventually bundling applications developed by xSP Member Network companies.

Avaya is building demonstration centers worldwide to showcase its products. Members who agree to host a minimum number of customer visits each year will be featured in Avaya white papers, case studies, and other marketing kits.

Avaya says it is prepared to help service providers launch Avaya products by assisting them in all phases of the launch—from design through implementation.

The network will eventually have local and regional councils as well as a global council. These groups will be invited to Avaya Leadership forums where they will be allowed to meet Avaya executives up to the VP level. These councils will be used to provide feedback to Avaya about its products and services—sort of an Avaya roundtable.

Welcome to 21st Century marketing—our focus today is branding.

Conclusion
The Avaya xSP network has three levels of membership depending on what your communications company spends on its products each year. "Strategic" members must guarantee $10 million in annual purchases from Avaya, "Premier" $2 million, and "Primary" level members must guarantee $500,000.

Shawn Scianna, Avaya Global Service Provider marketing manager, said the company believes the xSP Member Network to be the most complete and robust program available to help take your xSP to market.

"The Member Network is an exciting way to maximize your sales, increase your market awareness and give you a competitive advantage in today's dynamic market," Scianna said. "It will also strengthen your relationship with a market leader, and provide you with public recognition of that relationship while assisting your customers in locating a high-quality, reliable service provider."

—End