Avaya (now my most hated telecom company, or should I say hated “telecom” company) is continuing to loose their roots. The very liberal, and extremely progressive technological company (that will never go public again) is now comparing office phones to “cord cutting”.

As he defines it “the practice of canceling or forgoing cable television subscription or land line telephone connection in favor of an alternative Internet-based or wireless service.”  Try putting salt in the wounds of victims of Hurricane Sandy or Irene who wanted their copper service because the damn thing works, without having to install UPS to technically inapt people. While this publisher admits POTS and copper service can be expensive, user choice should be an option. But options are limited as “the consumerization of IT” allegedly gives the user better choices (read inferior quality.)

Don’t shoot the messenger (that is me!) This is what their marketing people believe in.

 

On a Linked In post, a “systems engineer” (whatever that means in today’s standards) makes weird claims that 89% of employees mobile devices connect to the corporate network, and another claim at a third of enterprises will no longer provide devises for their employees by the year 2016.

Another disturbing thing this alleged engineer says the following:

A lot of ink has been spilled proclaiming the death of the desk phone. Most of the authors of these obituaries proclaim that the new hub for business communications is the desktop computer. But this approach flies in the face of the reality that the time spent at our desks is declining. The devices employees are choosing to use are not their personal computers, but mobile phones and /or tablets. In a recent survey, 70% of responding employees preferred to use their mobile phone in place of their desk phones. Employees WANT to cut the cord. – Steve Forcum’s Linked In page.

 

Really?

I don’t want to cut my cord.

Ask every employee in this country and come back to me.

Stop with the lies.

Again this marketer type is giving some really weird numbers. My high school job was working at a semiconductor company supplying chips for the iPhone, doing accounts payable. I cannot, and say cannot do such work on my iPhone let alone my own laptop. There are laws like Sarbanes Oxley and other rules where we really need a PC. The phone on the other hand wan’t used often, so maybe eliminate a phone in that department could be plausible.

I think the Politically Incorrect approach, is how companies have no understanding or caring about the working class people. People need phones or PCs in some environments, whether its a fab or a place that does clerical work. Avaya’s out of touch marketing factor with an extreme anti-establishment, anti business agenda is murdering the desk phones for no reason. Avaya’s corporate ancestors (Lucent and AT&T) had strongly innovated for and by the end user. Nortel and others required a PhD to administer their PBX or even their deskset. This company is quickly getting destroyed all in the name to be hip and relevant.

I’m no longer on both the Avaya and Nortel list, but those list represent the majority. Some want the hip features, some like the cost effectiveness and some use it to make calls. Again their marketing department is tone deaf.

I am making a stand to boycott Avaya forever! I never thought in a billion years, I’d give up on one of my favorite office phone vendors, but Avaya lost us, they are too into sl*tifiing their company instead of being a utilitarian IT provider. And lot of this is part of the Nortel Enterprise unit, of the alleged innovation, progressive and destruction of the same ol. There is more job losses in Avaya Red (native) than Avaya Blue (Nortel.) They should call them for what they are, they are the modern day Nortel enterprise unit.