For years, Avaya has been the backbone of enterprise contact centers—reliable, familiar, and deeply integrated into operations. But the landscape changed. Customer expectations moved to real time. AI became central to agent performance. Flexibility and scalability became non-negotiable. And legacy hardware simply couldn’t evolve fast enough.
That’s where Amazon Connect comes in. A fully serverless, cloud-native platform designed to support hyper-scalable, AI-driven customer experiences. Yet, here’s the truth many leaders quietly admit:
Migrating from Avaya is intimidating.
Avaya → Amazon Connect isn’t just a technical jump. It demands rethinking workflows, rebuilding routing logic, connecting dozens of systems, and retraining entire teams. One weak decision turns into outages, agent frustration, compliance issues, or—worst of all—an unreliable customer experience.
The good news?
There is a structured way to do this without chaos.
This is where the SleekSwitch Migration Playbook comes in—a battle-tested framework designed to help CX leaders transition from Avaya to Amazon Connect safely, predictably, and with measurable ROI from day one.
Let’s break it down.
Why Avaya → Amazon Connect Is Not a “Lift and Shift”
Many enterprises start with the assumption that migrating means recreating Avaya’s workflows in Amazon Connect. But here’s the snag:
Legacy design doesn’t translate cleanly into serverless architecture.
Avaya systems often include:
– Complex routing rules hidden inside years of patches
– IVRs stitched together with hard-coded logic
– On-prem hardware dependencies
– Siloed reporting with inconsistent data definitions
– Manual agent workflows designed for older tools
Trying to copy this directly only transfers inefficiencies into the cloud.
Amazon Connect isn’t meant to replicate Avaya — it’s meant to outperform it.
That means rebuilding your contact center with AI-first, automation-first thinking.
The SleekSwitch framework forces this mindset right from the start.
Phase One: Discovery & Current-State Engineering
Every successful migration begins with an uncomfortable but essential step:
Understanding what you actually have.
This means mapping your Avaya environment across four layers:
a) Channels
Voice, chat, email, SMS, self-service modules, skill-based routing, concurrent call capacity—everything must be documented.
b) IVR + Routing Logic
What events trigger transfers?
Which queues depend on which skills?
Where do customers get stuck?
Where are abandonment spikes?
This is where most hidden complexity sits.
c) Agent Workflows
What do agents click, where do they look, what slows them down, what frustrates them?
If these workflows aren’t reimagined, migration ROI collapses.
d) Integrations
CRMs, ticketing systems, payment gateways, workforce management (WFM), SSO, analytics tools, compliance stacks.
This discovery phase becomes the source of truth that everything else depends on.
Phase Two: Architecture & “Target State” Blueprint
Once the current state is captured, the next job is creating the Target State Architecture—a blueprint for how your contact center should work in Amazon Connect.
This includes:
• Omnichannel design
Voice, chat, SMS, and email flow through a unified real-time layer instead of fragmented Avaya queues.
• AI-powered IVR
Amazon Lex replaces rigid menu trees with conversational flows.
• Intent-driven routing
Routing becomes dynamic, based on customer history, sentiment, intent, wait times, and agent expertise.
• Agent experience upgrade
Q in Connect becomes the agent cockpit, reducing clicks and surfacing the right information automatically.
• Real-time analytics
Kinesis + QuickSight deliver unified dashboards (instead of multi-system reports that never align).
• Security, governance & compliance
Policies, IAM rules, encryption, PII boundaries, audit logs, and data retention plans are defined up front.
Phase Three: Pilot Design (The Heart of the Playbook)
This is the part most teams get wrong.
A good pilot isn’t a “test.”
A good pilot is a controlled live environment engineered for learning.
The SleekSwitch pilot approach focuses on:
a) One high-impact, low-risk queue
Not mission-critical. Not trivial either. Something with predictable volume and clear workflows.
b) Real agents + real customers
Simulations never reveal real-world problems.
c) Dual routing
Traffic flows into both Avaya and Connect to compare quality, performance, and agent experience.
d) Metrics instrumented from day one
AHT, FCR, CSAT, agent after-call work, call quality, sentiment shifts, IVR accuracy.
e) Agent readiness
Agents get:
– A guided walkthrough
– Short micro-training
– A live coaching assist
– A feedback loop
The goal isn’t perfection.
The goal is visibility—understanding exactly what needs refinement before scaling.
Phase Four: Migration & Cutover Strategy (Zero Disruption)
This is where most fear sits. Cutovers feel risky because organizations often do them too early or with too little testing.
SleekSwitch uses a layered cutover:
Wave 1: Canary Rollout
A small percentage of calls route into Connect.
Monitoring tools track quality, latency, and routing accuracy.
Wave 2: Functional Rollouts
Each workflow is transitioned one-by-one:
– Billing → Connect
– Tech Support → Connect
– Sales → Connect
Nothing big-bangs.
Everything moves in waves.
Wave 3: Dual Operation
Avaya stays active as a safety net—no abrupt shutdowns.
Wave 4: Full Cutover
Once data shows consistent performance, the switch flips.
This is often the least dramatic part of the entire project.
Phase Five: Optimization (Where the Real ROI Happens)
Migrating to Amazon Connect isn’t the finish line.
It’s the starting point for continuous improvement.
Here’s what optimization looks like under SleekSwitch:
AI & Automation Enhancements
– Auto-summaries
– Sentiment-guided routing
– Real-time agent guidance
– Automated QA
Self-Service Expansion
– Modernized Lex flows
– Actionable IVR journeys
– Personalization using customer context
Operational Efficiency
– Fewer transfers
– Faster resolution
– Lower infrastructure cost
– Better agent onboarding
Reporting + Insights
Everything from CX trends to call drivers to employee performance becomes transparent.
This is where Amazon Connect stops being a “replacement” and becomes a genuine growth accelerator.
Measuring ROI: What Good Migration Looks Like
A well-executed Avaya → Amazon Connect migration consistently delivers:
✔ 30–50% lower infrastructure cost
Serverless architecture means you pay only per interaction.
✔ 20–40% reduction in AHT
Guided workflows, real-time assistance, and automation do the heavy lifting.
✔ 25–55% higher agent productivity
Agents spend less time searching and more time solving.
✔ Better customer satisfaction
Fewer transfers, smarter routing, faster answers.
✔ Faster innovation cycles
Workflows can be updated in hours, not weeks.
This isn’t hypothetical.
These numbers show up repeatedly across organizations that adopt a structured playbook.
Why SleekSwitch Works (When DIY Migration Doesn’t)
Most failed migrations have the same root cause:
Teams underestimate the complexity of moving a legacy system that ran for 10–15 years.
The SleekSwitch Playbook solves this through:
– Clarity
A single blueprint for architecture, workflows, agents, analytics, and compliance.
– Predictability
Every phase is incremental, measurable, and reversible.
– Zero downtime
Dual routing + canary cutover = controlled change.
– Faster time-to-value
AI-powered workflows start delivering ROI during the pilot.
– Continuous optimization
The playbook doesn’t “end” at go-live.
It grows with your CX strategy.
Conclusion: The Future of CX Doesn’t Run on Legacy
If you’re still running on Avaya, you already know the feeling—patches, hardware failures, upgrade cycles, limited flexibility, and a growing inability to match modern customer expectations.
Amazon Connect flips that script.
But the real difference isn’t the platform.
It’s the migration strategy.
SleekSwitch turns a high-risk, high-stress transition into a structured journey that upgrades your architecture, elevates agent performance, and transforms customer experience—without business disruption.
This isn’t a migration.
It’s your contact center’s reset button.
