• Cost of change( 40.9 %) underscores the financial risk of large migrations.
For those evaluating cloud:
• Scalability( 37.2 %) and business continuity( 30.8 %) are the most important motivators.
• Compliance, cost savings, and agility also appear frequently, but always weighed against risk.
Across both groups, three priorities stand out: integration, compliance, and predictable cost models. Enterprises are looking for modernization that fits seamlessly with existing workflows, aligns with regulatory requirements( HIPAA, PCI, CJIS [ Criminal Justice Information Services ]), and avoids unpredictable consumption-based expenses.
The message: enterprises will modernize, but only when the business case is clear, the risk is controlled, and the cost model is predictable. Vendor hype or industry trends alone are not persuasive.
AVAYA’ S BRAND HEALTH: TRUSTED, BUT UNDER PRESSURE
Question 12 of the survey asked respondents an open-ended question:“ What is your organization’ s perspective of Avaya?” The responses provide a nuanced picture of Avaya’ s brand health.
• 45 % expressed positive sentiment, describing Avaya as a“ trusted partner” and“ gold standard of contact center tools.”
• 35 % were neutral, often acknowledging Avaya’ s history and technical depth without highlighting innovation.
• 20 % were critical, citing lost loyalty, slow innovation, and rising competitive threats.
The takeaway: Avaya still carries significant goodwill, but loyalty is not unconditional. Customers want Avaya to succeed, but patience is finite. Competitors are actively winning attention, and if Avaya fails to deliver modernization, customers are prepared to explore alternatives.
46 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE
For Avaya, the brand remains stable, but vulnerable. Stability is a valuable asset, especially in regulated industries. But without proof of leadership in AI, automation, and hybrid strategies, stability risks being overshadowed by perceptions of stagnation.
INDUSTRY VOICES: UTILITIES, HEALTHCARE, FINANCIAL SERVICES
One of the most valuable aspects of the IAUG survey is its industry diversity. Respondents represent a wide spectrum of verticals.
• Several industries emerge as especially prominent: education( 17.9 %), government( 15.4 %), technology / telecom( 14.1 %), and financial services( 11.5 %).
THE CLOUD SHIFT AND AVAYA CUSTOMER LOYALTY
One of the long-reported benefits of shifting software like contact center routing, IVR, and outbound dialing from on-premise installations to the cloud is the greater flexibility to add, change, and update applications.
But does that also mean that contact centers can more easily change suppliers than in the past?
For Avaya, with its install base including many rugged, reliable, but aging legacy on-premise applications, does that mean its customer base is becoming less“ sticky”?
If customers can now migrate without the disruption and cost of a full rip-and-replace, doesn’ t that make it easier for them to leave Avaya? Thereby putting the company on notice that it does need to modernize to keep its users?
Here are the responses to these questions, posed by Contact Center Pipeline Editor Brendan Read, from Tom Hanson, Swampfox Technologies who authored the article“ Avaya at a Crossroads” that drew on the results of the 2025 International Avaya Users Group( IAUG) survey.
“ The notion that cloud migration automatically reduces customer stickiness oversimplifies the reality of enterprise contact center operations,” says Tom.
“ While the cloud may remove certain infrastructure constraints, the operational and integration dependencies that define an enterprise contact center remain just as complex, and just as sticky.
“ Avaya customers have decades of operational logic, data integrations, and performance expectations built into their systems.
“ Moving those workflows to any new platform, even within Avaya’ s own cloud environment, requires redevelopment, reintegration, retraining, and re-validation of reporting and business rules. That’ s disruptive and costly, regardless of where the software runs.
“ What’ s more, many cloud platforms replace one form of lock-in with another. Once you adopt a provider’ s proprietary ecosystem, you’ re tied to their roadmap, pricing, uptime, and integration limits. You gain elasticity, but you lose independence.
“ That’ s why there is a strategy to‘ Innovate in Place,’ transforming existing legacy technologies, precisely to counter this trap. This methodology enables Avaya customers to modernize, extend capabilities, and even integrate cloud-based technologies: without abandoning the proven core of their operations.
“ This approach preserves the customer’ s investment, minimizes disruption, and lets them innovate at their own pace while maintaining technology independence.
“ In short, moving to the cloud doesn’ t eliminate stickiness: it just shifts where it resides. Avaya customers can now evolve on their own terms rather than being forced into another vendor’ s box.”