Computer networking specialist Avaya has launched a
business transformation project to standardise and streamline its
core operations globally. The aim is to simplify and enhance the
way it interacts with customers and partners.
At the IT level, the project calls for revamping Avaya's
software architecture by upgrading and extending its use of SAP
enterprise resource planning and Siebel Systems' customer
relationship management applications and replacing an assortment of
older, less integrated software programs.
Avaya expects that standardising on SAP and Siebel will give it
a globally consistent software architecture for its core business
processes, including sales, billing, customer service, supply chain
management and finance. This would support Avaya's extensive
transformation of these business processes to simplify and
standardise them globally.
The transformation is also designed to increase revenue and
improve the bottom line. In its second fiscal quarter of 2003,
ended 31 March, Avaya's revenue dropped to $1.08bn, from $1.27bn in
2002's second fiscal quarter, while its net loss narrowed to $16m
from $63m.
Avaya launched its transformation project around October 2002
and brought in IBM's Business Consulting Services (BCS) team about
five months ago to provide business-transformation consulting and
system integration services, said Jack Denault, vice-president of
business transformation at Avaya. The contract with IBM runs for
three years.
The companies declined to disclose the contract's value, but
analyst Jonathan Eunice estimates it is worth at least $200m, big
in the context of consulting and systems integration
engagements.
IBM BCS was formed last year as a result of IBM's $3.5bn
purchase of PwC Consulting from PricewaterhouseCoopers. IBM BCS was
formed with about 30,000 PwC Consulting employees and another
30,000 employees from an IBM division called Business Innovation
Services.
For IBM BCS, the Avaya project currently ranks among its most
important ones. It's in a group of top-tier engagements we've got
that offer the full breadth of our capabilities," said Sam
Kapreilian, the global relationship partner for the Avaya project
at IBM Business Consulting Services.
Juan Carlos Perez writes for IDG.