Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA) announced an acceleration of their ongoing relationship with Collab9, a best-of-breed, FedRAMP-authorized Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) provider focused on the public-sector market. The two companies announced a go-to-market strategy that makes Collab9 the exclusive FedRAMP platform for Avaya in delivering Avaya OneCloud Contact Center, and Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions to federal, state and local government organizations across the U.S.
The government market opportunity for communications solutions in the U.S. is large and growing, estimated at more than 20 million contact center and unified communications seats.†In addition, the General Services Administration has awarded a $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract, designed to provide worldwide telecommunications solutions to federal agencies, thus demonstrating the intention of the Federal Government to migrate to cloud-based unified communications and contact center solutions.
Meeting the communications needs of government customers as they move to the flexibility and efficiencies of cloud-based as-a-service models requires leading-edge innovation, as well as the most robust security and reliability features, all delivered from a verified, FedRAMP-authorized infrastructure. Collab9 offers highly secure cloud communications and collaboration platform solutions—including voice, collaboration, video, unified messaging, voicemail and contact center—under a cloud-based monthly subscription model. FedRAMP authorization for cloud offerings indicates that the solutions meet the U.S. federal government’s stringent requirements for cloud products and services.
The expanded partnering agreement will help Avaya and Collab9 better address the critical needs of government organizations as they undertake digital transformation strategies. It also serves as yet another example of Avaya’s customer-led focus on delivering innovative and intelligent communications experiences via public, private and hybrid cloud platforms.
“Collab9 has been a valued Avaya partner, and this decision to make Collab9 our exclusive FedRAMP platform for all new opportunities strengthens our ability to grow together and serve customers in the government market,” said Jerry Dotson, vice president, Government Solutions, Avaya. “Avaya OneCloud UCaaS and CCaaS provide digital communications for flexible, reliable, and secure government operations, giving agencies best-in-class tools and resources to meet and exceed the needs of citizens and the government employees†who serve them. Accelerating our relationship with Collab9 to more fully leverage their FedRAMP and other compliance and certification capabilities will enable our solutions to be more widely available and adopted in the government market, and broadens the FedRAMP-authorized†Avaya portfolio enabling us to migrate customers to the cloud faster.”
The enhanced relationship will further extend the significant lead that Collab9 enjoys in the FedRAMP CSP market, and further expands the Avaya footprint in the Collab9 Data Centers, while also provisioning FedRAMP CCaaS along with Avaya’s award-winning FedRAMP UCaaS offering. Additionally, it is anticipated that the strengthened relationship will also position the business to provide IL4 and IL5 services for DOD commands requiring SaaS cloud solutions.
“Avaya is recognized throughout the U.S. federal government as well as state and local government agencies as the best choice for UCaaS and CCaaS solutions, and [this] announcement strengthens our ability to further address the critical needs of these organizations and enable successful digital transformation strategies that are equal to or better than those of many private sector enterprises,” said Kevin Schatzle, CEO, Collab9. “This arrangement is expected to enhance the ability to accelerate certifications such as HIPAA, PCI, IRS-1075 and CJIS that are critical for the state and local government entities, offering customers cost savings, enhanced security, and transformative collaboration technologies.”
Avaya communications and collaboration solutions are supported 24 x 7 x 365 by U.S.-dedicated resources that include software, services, and hardware. Avaya government solutions are a secure and robust portfolio from an industry leader with over 120,000 customers worldwide, including over 90 percent of the Fortune 500 and millions of endpoints in use by key U.S. government agencies.
