India to play an important role in our R&D: Avaya

US-based business communication solutions firm Avaya today said it expects its R&D team in India to play an important role in development of products and services to tap burgeoning sectors like healthcare and education.
More than 30 per cent of Avaya's global research and development workforce is based out of India across Pune and Bangalore.
Avaya has over 2,500 people in India, including sales.
"The largest R&D base for Avaya globally is at Pune, which has the highest R&D headcount in any single location in the world. In the last three fiscals, India R&D teams have filed 72 ideas, that shows the importance that India has for us," Avaya Managing Director India Priyadarshi Mohapatra told PTI.

Also, 18 ideas that originated from India location got approved for filing in the US Patent and Trademark Office, he added.
"Communication is now real-time collaboration with enterprises also shifting to the consumer side and therefore, it is not one or the other but a collaboration of voice, data, video and social media," Mohapatra said.

There are huge opportunities across various sectors like healthcare, education, e-commerce and others, he added.
Asked about opportunities in the government space, Mohapatra said there is a sense of optimism.
"We are engaging at multiple levels with the governments. This is across states and Centre. In fact, Avaya has more than 30 emergency services installations in India as part of the citizen services," he said.

Customers today are not concerned about the end products, the outcome of these technologies is their greatest concern, he added.
"At Avaya, we develop technology and services according to our customer needs, catering to their requirements is our key objective," he said.