Avaya is purchasing Israeli enterprise software developer ITNavigator for an undisclosed sum. In doing so, it is formally acquiring a go-to-market partner whose software is already in use as Avaya Contact Center Control Manager at large communications carriers and financial institutions. Looking ahead, ITNavigator’s cloud-based platform will be fundamental to Avaya’s evolving “Collaborative Cloud” offerings both for contact center and “unified communications.”

ITNavigator was founded in 2001 as an IT service provider addressing the Israeli market. Within four years, it had made software development its specialty. It forged a strong connection during those years, with ITNavigator developing several products to complement Avaya’s products, most importantly unified, end-to-end management and reporting software that spans social networks, contact centers and the rest of an enterprise’s communications infrastructure. Going forward, Avaya sees ITNavigator’s management and reporting software supporting both cloud-based and “hybrid” network implementations.

For its part, ITNavigator spun out its professional services practice to concentrate on software development. According to reports in the Israeli press, the software division now employs 50 people in the Tel Aviv suburb of Peta Tikva. It will now be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avaya and both companies will benefit from sharing R&D efforts across multiple centers in Israel.

Avaya has not been timid about acquiring firms that help it fill immediate market requirements. In this case, the need is three-fold. Avaya customers will have access real-time reports that span contact center data and key performance indicators, as well as information from CRM, billing and other systems. The reporting platform can be deployed in the public cloud, as a premises-based solution or across hybrid or heterogeneous environments. Another key component is ITNavigator’s Social Media Gateway, which gives companies an Avaya-branded and integrated way to monitor and respond to activity on popular social media networks. Finally, in anticipation of the need to make employees outside the contact center part of customer-facing activities, the Avaya Contact Center Control Manager, which has been OEMed from ITNavigator, has evolved into the Avaya Collaborative Cloud offering, which Avaya characterizes as “a tightly integrated, user-friendly, end-to-end management and administration solution across Avaya’s cloud, unified communications and contact center portfolios.”

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Tags: SaaS, Unified Communications, Avaya, Social CRM, conversational commerce, Contact Center Management