Avaya Doubles its Videoconferencing Play with RADVISION Buy

In a move that pushes it even deeper into the unified communications and collaboration market, Avaya is acquiring Israel-based videoconferencing solutions vendor RADVISION for about $230 million.

The deal doubles the size of Avaya’s video portfolio by scooping up RADVISION’s well-known SCOPIA line of videoconferencing and telepresence equipment, which Avaya said will be integrated into its Aura Unified Communications (UC) platform. Both companies’ technologies are built on open standards, making the integration of the two technologies as easy as “snapping in” SCOPIA into Aura and other Avaya solutions, said Gary Barnett, SVP and GM of Collaboration at Avaya during a conference call announcing the acquisition.

In discussing integrating the two technologies, Barnett noted, “I wouldn’t say it is an architectural change because both are build to handle the [same] types of capabilities. So we don’t expect large changes in architectures — we look at it as more of a ‘snapping in’ of technology rather than [forcing] a rip and replace.”

Both Barnett and Boaz Raviv, RADVISION CEO, said the acquisition stands to benefit the channel partner ranks of both companies, especially as video collaboration continues to be embraced in the enterprise and downstream. “This joining of technologies is an exciting prospect and one will benefit our customers, channel partners and employees and accelerate the adoption of video collaboration,” Barnett said. Raviv, meanwhile, noted RADVISION’s channel partners will benefit from Avaya’s large footprint, customer base and breadth of marketing expertise as they bring solutions to market.

“This announcement is all about partners, enabling them to do more,” said Nick Francis, VP of Sales – Collaboration. “For those who choose to invest with us, they now have greater capability. They’re looking for an alternative to Cisco and Polycom. Customers demanding from them and us more different, better cost points, more flexibility, and we are the only one delivering open architecture to deliver that. This will bring an opportunity for growth four our partners in the market.”

Hugh McCullen, senior director of Video Business Development and Strategic Alliances at Avaya, noted the combination of technologies also could drive greater customer loyalty for partners.

“Many customers have segmented solutions, or different pieces of a UC solution from different vendors, and this acquisition will create a single-choice supplier to supply the selection of both UC and video,” he said. “Plus, what drives a lot of partners is their skill sets and the relationships they have with their customers, which in turn drives customer satisfaction and loyalty. We think we will increase that loyalty by having an end-to-end solution for partners to offer their customers.

Indeed, building a robust video portfolio is crucial as the battle lines in the UC space are being drawn. Polycom has made strides over the last two years in increasing its market visibility, and currently it is the company Avaya needs to beat. The RADVISION acquisition moves Avaya to having a fully interoperable, end-to-end total native collaboration solution, which, in turn. will make Avaya the company to beat.