On Tuesday this week Salmat, one of Australia’s largest outsourcers, announced that they have struck a deal with global contact centre technology provider, Avaya.

Over the next 12-18 months, Salmat will switch out its Genesys solutions and implement Avaya across its contact centre practice (about 2900 seats) and across Salmat's own enterprise.

Salmat initiated a technology review about three years ago and went to market 12 months ago seeking a new 'one- solution' provider. The business drivers for Salmat's technology review included client demand for multi-channel and integrated channel solutions, the need for a scalability, an ‘easy to move platform’ that provided efficiencies as well as facilitating speed to market and ability to ramp.

Salmat CEO Grant Harrod, stated, "We were looking for a long term partner, not just a technology provider and a company that could provide the entire solution. We were not looking for companies that needed multiple partners to provide services. We wanted innovation and based on Avaya's future roadmap, there was great alignment with Salmat."

Harrod also noted that the commercial deal with Avaya is in itself innovative and not simply based on numbers of licences. The commercial model and arrangement is scalable, an attribute Harrod stated was critical in Salmat’s decision making.

Although Harrod commented that technology was not a factor in Salmat losing a number of clients over the last 18months, he did note that Salmat no longer wanted to be a 'labour hire' company, rather Salmat will differentiate on its service delivery powered by advanced technology solutions.

David Besson, CEO of Salmat's Customer Contact Solutions, stated that "Technology will be a key component of our offering. It will become more and more important. We already differentiate on culture, recruitment, and management systems, but we will now differentiate on technology."

When asked about how Salmat’s clients feel about the significant change, Besson responded, "None of our clients have expressed concern about the pending change to Avaya. We have a very experienced team and a detailed plan for switching out Genesys and implementing Avaya, all of which will be completed within 12-18 months."

Harrod also discussed other benefits the new solution will bring, including being able to offer clients the ability to deliver services through mobile devices and smart phones. Harrod said, "This will be revolutionary and is how the consumer of the future is going to interact with brands. We already have considerable expertise in the digital space across other areas of Salmat, and we will now have this in our contact centre practice."

Harrod concluded that the Avaya deal will also support his vision of One Salmat, by providing one platform for service delivery. Currently Salmat has three divisions that provide different IVR solutions.

Analyst's speculate that the Salmat and Avaya deal is in the vicinity of $10-20million.