Avaya's New Portal For Deal Registration Gets Mixed Reviews

Avaya rolled out its Enterprise eDemand portal to boost sales opportunities for partners by feeding them sales leads and allowing them to register prospects, said Gregg Kalman, sales vice president for channel strategy and programs at Avaya, Basking Ridge, N.J. “It&'s all about opportunity sharing,” said Kalman of the portal, which daily doles out leads in relatively equal portion.

But while partners say they&'re pleased to have the new system, they cite three areas in which Avaya needs to do a better job: describing the type of job before a partner picks the lead; explaining the reasons why Avaya rejects a registered deal; and telling customers why a partner decided to pass on their particular job.

Currently, the system does not specify whether the lead is already taken by another partner, is among Avaya&'s approximately 500 named accounts, or is the subject of another conflict.

“We don&'t like the fact it&'s a blind pick,” said Arno Poissonier, marketing manager for Altura Communications Solutions, Anaheim, Calif. “Only after you pick a lead can you look at the details. So what&'s happened is we haven&'t even talked to the customer, and we dump [the lead], and the customer sees an e-mail saying we are not interested. It makes Avaya and business partners look like fools.”

Still, Poissonier said he likes how the system can level the playing field for partners. He also appreciates the 3-point uptick Avaya offers partners that register deals and close them within six months.

Kevin Nugent, vice president of sales at Gee Communications and Networking Solutions, an Avaya partner in Lansing, Mich., also offered mixed feedback. While he likes having a central place to register opportunities, for example, he wants more information about a lead before committing to it.

In response to these comments, Kalman said in a statement that Avaya&'s portal reflects early partner advice to mask lead details as a way to prevent “cherry-picking.” Kalman also said Avaya “would have no reason to reject anything that wasn&'t truly a duplicate.” E-mails notifying customers that a chosen lead will not be followed up on help close the loop, he said.

Avaya does 62 percent of its business through 125 channel partners.