Item: Avaya Communications API
Rating: 10
Author: David James Clarke IV

Overall Satisfaction with Avaya OneCloud CPaaS (formerly Zang Cloud)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Toolwire uses Avaya OneCloud CPaaS both internally and as a key ingredient in our world-class, SaaS learning experience platform (“Spaces Learning”). Internally, we use OneCloud for video conferencing, departmental collaboration, and remote engineering.

From a product perspective, our Spaces Learning platform combines asynchronous digital learning (Toolwire) with synchronous video conferencing and collaboration tools (Avaya OneCloud) to create a fully integrated, engaging virtual classroom. The cloud-based platform has been specifically built for upskilling and reskilling in SMB and Fortune 500 enterprises as well as virtual class delivery for middle schools, high schools, and higher education institutions.

My Courses – learners access all their courses in one central hub and view a list of upcoming events.
Course Stream – each course card provides a live feed of announcements, files, learning posts, Q&A, and activity.
My Learning – learners track their progress in each course and navigate videos, AI-curated articles, quizzes, virtual labs, and group activities.
Virtual Conferencing – everyone collaborates via webcam, audio, screen sharing, and chat.

Here is a link to a video demo of Spaces Learning: https://vimeo.com/531015905/f37c584bf0.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Strong Security: Avaya builds some of the most secure platforms in the world. CPaaS is no exception.
High Audio/Video Quality: CPaaS provide high quality audio and video across multiple form factors (i.e., browser, mobile, PSTN, etc).
Natural Collaboration: the People panel, Chat, and slack-like Streams enable natural collaboration among remote workers and students.
Intuitive User Experience: navigation and UX/UI features are easy to use.
Powerful APIs: CPaaS supports third-party application integration via a suite of powerful APIs. Toolwire has pushed the envelope on seamless API integration.

Cons

Virtual Backgrounds: in the learning use case, virtual backgrounds are needed to keep students engaged in the virtual classroom.
Breakout Rooms: Toolwire built a featured called “Group Spaces” to support small groups in breakout rooms from the virtual classroom.
Whiteboarding: in the learning use case, integrated whiteboarding would be helpful for instructors.

Return on Investment

[Positive] Product Extension & Market Access: through the integration of CPaaS functionality into Spaces Learning, Toolwire has extended its learning platform and gained access to a much larger market (i.e., TAM).
[Positive] Time to Market: by integrating established CPaaS APIs, Toolwire was able to release the enhanced product in one-fifth of the time it would take to develop the capabilities natively.
[Positive] Development Agility: the remote Toolwire engineering and QA teams are more effective, agile, and productive using the integrated CPaaS collaboration tools.
[Positive] Reduced Costs: CPaaS has allowed Toolwire to downsize physical office space in favor of virtual teams. Also, CPaaS has a lower TCO than our previous OneCloud platform.

Support Rating

Avaya OneCloud CPaaS support has been excellent. Specifically:

Onboarding new users (licensing)
API integration support
Client platform support for learners
Seamless rollout of new features (and documentation)

Key Insights

Do you think Avaya Communications API delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Avaya Communications API's feature set?

Yes

Did Avaya Communications API live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Avaya Communications API go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Avaya Communications API again?

Yes

Usability

Avaya OneCloud CPaaS and Spaces Learning make it easy for learners, coaches, and teachers to connect with each other – providing an engaging and effective learning experience. The intuitive user experience, natural collaboration environment, and real-time communications tools empower virtual education that is simple, hybrid, and interactive.

Imagine a day-in-the-life of Mark Rowland, a home-based customer service adviser at a large telecommunications company. Mark was recently scheduled for some customer support training, based on identified gaps in his job performance. Mark starts on the “My Classes” screen. The home page for each topic includes a live feed of announcements, learning-related posts, and other activity.

The People panel displays a list of all participants and provides an indication of who is currently online. Mark clicks the ‘Join Virtual Classroom’ button to join the next Virtual Coaching Session. Mark meets with a coach and several peers in a live video collaboration environment.

Next, Mark clicks the Chat tab and quickly says hi to the group. The coach shares his screen and begins walking the learners through the latest internet connection process for broadband routers. Afterwards, Mark notices that a recording of the session is now available in the Stream.

Likelihood to Recommend

Following are ideal use case scenarios for Avaya OneCloud CPaaS:

Agent Onboarding in Contact Centers – personalized digital transformation for contact center agents as part of a workforce management solution. Included in the Spaces Learning suite.
Reskilling and Upskilling in BPO Enterprises – skills gap training and assessment for technical employees and salespeople. Included in the Spaces Learning suite.
Virtual Classroom in Higher Education – integrated platform for educational content delivery, virtual lectures, small group projects, hands-on labs, and collaboration. Included in the Spaces Learning suite.
Remote Development Collaboration for Engineering Teams – agile platform for remote coding and development, virtual scrum meetings, and real-time chat.

Following are use case scenarios where Avaya OneCloud CPaaS is less appropriate:

Large Virtual Conference Events
Consumer Social Media Gatherings

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