Online Video Streaming Giant iQIYI Seamlessly Serves Over 500 Million Users During COVID-19 With Avaya Work-from-Anywhere Solutions

Avaya replaced legacy UC platform and is now scaling across multiple country locations

iQIYI, one of the largest online video platforms in the world with over 500 million monthly active users, has ensured business continuity and its ability to serve its massive customer base at a time of enforced remote-working, with collaboration and communications solutions from Avaya Holdings Corp. .

iQIYI has implemented what it refers to as its intelligent office system based on unified communications (UC) and collaboration apps from Avaya. The system, already in place before pandemic-related remote work actions were implemented, enables thousands of iQIYI staff to work from anywhere seamlessly, with the same capabilities and access to business applications as if they were working in the office.

“As one of the fastest-growing streaming businesses in the world, we believe that our employees play a key role in our success formula. Building a dynamic and flexible working environment is a priority, so even before the global pandemic, it was important that they could make use of work-from-anywhere capabilities. This meant that when measures were taken to slow the spread of the pandemic, our workforce was already prepared,” said Wen Qi, IT Manager, iQIYI.

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The ability for employees to have meetings, collaborate and access resources seamlessly from anywhere is just a small benefit to iQIYI’s wide-ranging unified communications overhaul. Avaya has worked closely with the company to fully integrate its communications platform with HR and IT business processes, and iQIYI has begun integrating its custom, in-house applications with the platform, including its own custom-designed endpoints.

iQIYI HR operations are now more agile and efficient, with new hires being automatically provisioned with Avaya unified communications seats upon joining, and old seats are automatically released when staff members leave. Additionally, the intelligent office system has aided in employee retention.

iQIYI’s Avaya solution replaced a legacy unified communications infrastructure for 9,000 employees in 15 branches across China, including its headquarters in Beijing, providing a state-of-the-art collaboration platform that would fully integrate business communications with various applications to deliver innovation at the edge and provide a significant return on investment.

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Return on investment has already been achieved with money saved on network maintenance, thanks to an advanced monitoring solution, custom-built for iQIYI by Avaya Professional Services, which sees the system initiate calls, emails or other notifications to IT staff in the event of a partial or complete interruption, with advice on how to solve the issue.

“The whole platform offers a low-risk, stable solution that has provided immense speed to value. We are now in the process of quickly rolling it out to international offices in the United States, Russia, India and the Philippines,” Wen Qi added.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, and work-from-home measures implemented, iQIYI was totally prepared with the right technology infrastructure. On top of that, the company is well-prepared for the future, with a scalable, advanced communications platform that will help it drive its next phase of growth. We’re excited to be working with iQIYI on this journey,” said Lily Fu, Managing Director – Greater China, Avaya.

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