Avaya Powers Digital Transformation to Modernize the Customer Experience in the Financial Services Industry

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - October 12, 2017) - With industry analysts forecasting unprecedented change for the Financial Services and Insurance (FSI) industry over the next three years¹, companies need a highly flexible, open and secure communications foundation with which they can confidently embrace the future. To that end, Avaya Customer Engagement Solutions hold the key for successfully navigating digital transformation initiatives, enhancing mobile services and incorporating emerging technologies.

The FSI industry already faces a plethora of challenges, including decreased loyalty especially with younger consumers, complex operations, security and regulatory requirements that slow the pace of change, and increased competition from non-traditional companies such as Apple, Google and others.

These challenges and the rapid growth in mobile transactions have FSI companies racing to implement a wide range of digital transformation strategies. As with many major technology transformations, however, there's untold risk in choosing technology or implementing a strategy that ultimately constrains future business initiatives, results in lost revenue or worse, customers, as well as abandoned investments.

Institutions such as O-Bank, a Taiwan-based, all digital bank and Masheq Bank in the UAE exemplify the changing financial services industry today. O-Bank selected Avaya Customer Engagement technologies for the first, Digital-From-Day-One financial services company in the country, with a 24/7 video center that enables the company to be available to customers any time of day, anywhere they need to bank. The company has plenty of room to grow its customers and to incorporate new technologies as needs arise. Masheq Bank is creating the Branch of the Future and expanding its mobile banking capabilities with Avaya Customer Engagement solutions, integrating the latest technology trends, including robotics, analytics, cloud and e-channels, into existing Mashreq Bank's digital services.

Digital transformation strategies planned by traditional or non-traditional financial institutions need to accommodate ongoing development of new and emerging technologies. Biometrics, artificial intelligence, mixed reality, IoT and analytics, as well as Blockchain already promise to have significant impacts on how banking is done. The technological underpinnings have never been more important to enable rapid, highly secure, cost-effective transformation and avoid delays and dead ends.

The Avaya portfolio of software solutions and services -- including Avaya Breeze, Avaya Oceana, Avaya Oceanalytics -- provides a platform that enables unique differentiation while future-proofing intellectual property. This flexible, secure foundation enables ongoing transformation with minimal disruption as new demands and technologies arise. In addition, Avaya Professional Services can assess current infrastructure, develop strategic plans and customize applications to help identify and ensure successful outcomes throughout the evolution of the business. With Avaya, FSI companies can comfortably leverage:

• Biometrics addresses an increasing need for security while streamlining the customer experience. Working with companies such as Nuance, Verbio and others, Avaya has been integrating biometrics into its customer experience solutions to help FSI companies enhance security for mobile transactions while delivering faster, seamless authentication.
• Artificial Intelligence is alive and well in Avaya's intelligent messaging automation solution that enables chat-bot and automated response capabilities for SMS and web chat conversations, and integrates with popular social media platforms such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Kik and WeChat. AI can serve a number of use cases, including effortless self-service, smart routing, agent augmentation and much more. Look for more from Avaya and its DevConnect technology partners such as Nuance, Afiniti, Cogito and others on AI in the near future.
• Augmented and virtual reality can deliver an immersive, collaborative experience attractive to millennials and younger consumers. Avaya is working with technology partners such as EXP360 to deliver a virtual reality experience through Avaya Oceana.
• Internet of Things, including wearables, digital payment systems and sensors create both opportunities and challenges. On the plus side, with Avaya and partners such as Arrow SI with their IoT practice, companies can develop new services that drive additional revenue streams.
• Big Data and Analytics are imperative for organizations to increase share of wallet, deliver more personalized engagements and aid in compliance and fraud detection. Avaya Oceanalytics and analytics services offer a unified view of customers across all touchpoints and relevant sources -- Avaya, third party, mobile and IoT devices -- providing real-time information, historical trends as well as predictive analytics to help drive business improvements.
• Blockchain is rapidly gaining momentum in the FSI industry, can be complemented by application development platforms like Avaya Breeze, that utilize workflow automation to create a seamless and automated customer journey -- even when it spans multiple entities.

Nine of the 10 largest financial institutions² and eight of the 10 largest insurance companies³ in the world use Avaya solutions and services every day.

Quotes

"This is a time of profound change for many companies and none more so than those in the financial services and insurance industry. We understand their unique challenges and how to help quickly close the gap between where they are today and where they need to be. Avaya's portfolio offers the best opportunity to move to the future, adopting exciting emerging technologies on a flexible foundation that delivers an unparalleled customer experience."

Laurent Philonenko, SVP Corporate Strategy and Development and CTO, Avaya

About Avaya

Avaya enables the mission critical, real-time communication applications of the world's most important operations. As the global leader in delivering superior communications experiences, Avaya provides the most complete portfolio of software and services for contact center and unified communications with integrated, secure networking -- offered on premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid. Today's digital world requires some form of communications enablement, and no other company is better positioned to do this than Avaya. For more information, please visit www.avaya.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these are reasonable, such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

¹ IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Financial Services 2017 Predictions

² http://www.relbanks.com/worlds-top-banks/assets

³ http://www.relbanks.com/top-insurance-companies/world

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