A Partnership between Skype and Avaya
Sep 29th, 2010 by monicamoran
Recently, Skype, one of the world’s most popular messenger applications, has announced their partnership with Avaya Inc. one of the largest suppliers and makers of corporate phone equipments. The reason being that Skype would want to its services to be used more by corporations and increase its credibility among businesses. As of the beginning of next month, Avaya will be letting customers route their calls through the call services provided by Skype (1).
One advantage of this partnership is that it will help boost Skype’s reputation to major corporations as Avaya is one of the biggest call providers used in the business world. This, will therefore increase the brand loyalty of Skype throughout the market. Furthermore, it provides both companies more stability, in that if one company is having financial trouble, they can lean on their partner to aid them overcome the situation. In relation to Skype and Avaya, this is a significant advantage because the share a common goal of effective communication between people. Nonetheless, a disadvantage of a partnership is that it could create conflict between the two companies, such as the share of profit. Skype will definitely have an advantage in this partnership as it allows them to further expand and become more known to the corporate world. However, Avaya won’t gain as much as Skype in the partnership as Skype is the main company that will be affected.
In my opinion, this partnership could change Skype’s position in a market, in that it’s also now a messenger application for corporations, increasing the company’s professional position in a market. However, both companies should both look at the financial and non-financial factors to see if this partnership will be successful in the long term. Whether they succeed, depends on the corporate stakeholders interest in Skype, and most importantly how the two companies will work together.
(1) Galante, Joseph. “Skype Teams With Avaya to Boost Its Business With Corporations – Bloomberg.” Bloomberg – Business & Financial News, Breaking News Headlines. 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 30 Sept. 2010. <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-29/skype-teams-with-avaya-to-boost-its-business-with-corporations.html>.