Avaya is a global enterprise communications vendor with a large installed base of on-premise PBX and contact centre systems across South Africa and the world. The company’s strategy, articulated as “innovation without disruption,” is designed to allow existing Avaya customers to adopt cloud and AI capabilities without being forced into a rip-and-replace migration. For the many South African enterprises and government organisations running Avaya infrastructure, this approach offers a path to modernisation that protects existing investments.
Avaya Infinity Platform
Announced in April 2025, Avaya Infinity represents the company’s next-generation platform, positioned as a “connection center” that unifies communication channels, data, and applications with AI-driven orchestration. The platform supports deployment across private, on-premise, and hybrid cloud environments, addressing enterprise requirements for data sovereignty and security that often prevent full public cloud migration.
Avaya Infinity is designed to enable enterprises to innovate across customer experience, employee communications, and business process automation without compromising on reliability and control.
Avaya Experience Platform (AXP)
The Avaya Experience Platform is available in three deployment models:
AXP On-Prem (formerly Avaya Call Center Elite) — for organisations requiring full on-premise control of their contact centre infrastructure.
AXP Private Cloud (formerly Avaya Enterprise Cloud) — a dedicated cloud instance for enterprises requiring cloud benefits with private infrastructure.
AXP Public Cloud (formerly Avaya Experience Platform CCaaS) — a multi-tenant cloud contact centre for organisations ready for full cloud deployment.
This tiered approach allows Avaya customers to choose the deployment model that matches their security, compliance, and operational requirements, and to migrate between models over time.
South African Presence
Avaya has a significant installed base in South Africa, particularly in large enterprises, financial services, and government organisations that deployed Avaya’s PBX and contact centre platforms over the past two decades. The company operates through channel partners and system integrators in the local market.
Why SA Resellers Should Understand Avaya
Avaya’s relevance for South African resellers operates on two levels. First, the large installed base represents an ongoing opportunity for maintenance, support, and upgrade services. Second, the Infinity platform and hybrid cloud strategy create opportunities for resellers to help existing Avaya customers modernise their communications infrastructure without forcing a complete platform change.
For resellers competing against Avaya in the enterprise market, understanding the vendor’s positioning — particularly the hybrid cloud approach and AI integration strategy — is essential for articulating competitive alternatives.
More information is available at avaya.com.
About the Author
Mechelle Gindra
Mechelle Gindra is the managing editor and lead content strategist at Telecoms-Channel, South Africa's dedicated intelligence platform for telecoms resellers, ICT distributors, and channel partners. She oversees the editorial team's AI-assisted content production pipeline, ensuring vendor news, market analysis, and regulatory updates are accurate, timely, and actionable for the SA telecoms channel community. With deep expertise in the South African telecoms reseller ecosystem, Mechelle directs coverage of vendor partner programmes, ICASA regulatory developments, wholesale market dynamics, and channel business strategy. She is responsible for maintaining Telecoms-Channel's editorial standards, fact-checking processes, and corrections policy.
