CUSTOMER magazine recently spoke to Val Matula about WebRTC. Avaya’s (News 
- Alert) senior director of analytics and multimedia says WebRTC will be an integral offer to the company’s enterprise-wide Avaya Aura Collaboration Environment framework.
Does WebRTC open a new market opportunity for your product line?
Definitely. Just to start, WebRTC will enable our customers to offer consumers the ability to connect into their customer service centers using only their WebRTC-capable browser on their Android (News - Alert) device, Chromebook, or PC browser. This extends the capabilities of our thin-client customer service offers, as it adds WebRTC to the portfolio, which is in addition to our Adobe (News - Alert) Flash-based Avaya One Touch Video offer.
Is the data channel in WebRTC creating new possibilities in the enterprise?
It will, but these are likely to move along more slowly as there are numerous alternatives for client/server data exchange.
What vertical industries are early adopters of WebRTC?
In general, we believe that WebRTC (along with non-WebRTC technologies, such as co-browsing and co-piloting) will make the consumer experience more friendly and quicker – for finance, home mortgage processing, health care advising, and potentially any online retail experience.
Where are we on the WebRTC adoption curve?
Clearly, a portion of the browsers [are] support enough to make WebRTC useful. Whether this will be a technology for a significant fraction of users or whether this will become nearly ubiquitous across most users is still to be seen.
Do you support VP8 or H.264? Why?
Audio is well understood, and Avaya is planning to broadly support Opus. What is also clear is that neither VP8 nor H.264 will be chosen as the standard anytime soon, and thus we are making appropriate plans to offer [a] solution in this market.
In theory, HTML5 and WebRTC can eliminate native apps. Do you have plans for native mobile application with WebRTC or the Google (News - Alert) Media Engine?
Avaya believes that there is a continuing role for users to have native apps if the installation process is acceptable to them. Avaya today has offers based on the Google Media Engine to prove this out.
How often do you have to explain what WebRTC is to customers and prospects?
It’s not a question of ‘have to explain,’ rather, we are making sure we take every opportunity to explain Avaya’s role in helping to shape the standard, support technologies like Opus outside of just browsers, and finally, demonstrate interoperability between WebRTC and current industry solutions for UC and customer service.
How do events like the WebRTC Conference & Expo help the WebRTC community succeed?
The event helps to raise awareness, provide a cadence of events where significant announcements can be made, and provides a forum for efficiently promoting our view of the technology and impact.
What do you expect to be the hot topics at the event this time around?
Personally, not so much the issue of video, but rather, the role of all-browser/closed garden solutions vs. an integrated suite such as Avaya’s WebRTC, native app, and core enterprise infrastructure solutions.
What will you be doing at the WebRTC Conference & Expo in Atlanta?
Avaya’s Gary Barnett (News - Alert), senior vice president and general manager of collaboration, will present a keynote. In addition, I will be a member of several panels related to the use of WebRTC in customer service. We will have an expo position demonstrating our WebRTC capabilities as well.
Why did you decide to attend the WebRTC Conference & Expo?
We thought this was an excellent opportunity to show attendees the capabilities of our solutions, and get the word out on their value.
What do you hope attendees will learn about Avaya at the event?
I think they’ll get a practical view of the use of the technology – as an extremely valuable technology addition to a full suite of communication and collaboration capabilities already present in our portfolio.
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“In general, we believe that WebRTC will make the consumer experience more friendly and quicker.”
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
