Avaya Helps NORAD Spread Christmas Cheer To Millions of Families Following Santa Claus Across The Globe

Avaya OneCloud CCaaS solutions enable NORAD to handle over 2 calls every second to the NORAD Track’s Santa Hotline on Christmas Eve

Avaya, a global leader in solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration, is once again sharing its holiday spirit as well as its technology, to help track Santa Claus’ journey across the night sky on Christmas Eve, supporting tens of thousands of calls from children of all ages who eagerly await his visit.

Avaya OneCloud CCaaS contact center solutions support millions of customer calls, web chats, and texts around the world every day, serving healthcare systems, educational institutions, the largest banks and government agencies. This Christmas, Avaya will be sharing its multiexperience contact center technology to support the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Operations Center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado so that children around the world can follow Santa and his reindeer’s annual journey of joy and double check his safety during the extensive night of global travel.

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The 65th annual NORAD Tracks Santa, will begin December 24 through Christmas Day, December 25 and will provide real-time updates on Santa’s progress. The NORAD Tracks Santa call center is being adapted due to ongoing public health concerns due to an increase in COVID-19 cases. This year, only a small number of volunteers will be answering the NORAD Tracks Santa toll-free number, 1-877-Hi-NORAD. Santa’s trackers all over the world who cannot reach one of these volunteers will receive a recorded update on Santa’s current location.

“At Avaya we know every call and every experience matters – whether it’s an eager child impatiently waiting for that perfect gift from Santa, a Navy officer on an aircraft carrier sending birthday greetings to his grandfather or families getting together virtually this season,” said Jerry Dotson, VP, Avaya Public Sector. “The capability to create meaningful connections across a variety of platforms makes for happier customers and a happier holiday season. We are proud to serve so many, including the NORAD Tracks Santa program, and pleased that our technology continues to help spread cheer across the globe.”

During the 20-hour period in 2019, more than 1,500 hotline volunteers answered more than 154,000 calls to the NORAD Tracks Santa 1-877 HI-NORAD hotline. The NORAD Tracks Santa website, available in eight languages, received 15 million visitors. Santa trackers asked their Alexa devices “Hey, Alexa, where’s Santa?” 1.8 million times and more than 15,800 people requested to track Santa through OnStar.

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Avaya customer experience technology safely helps volunteers carefully monitor Santa’s travels and ensure his safety using radar, satellites, planes and ‘Santa Cams’ strategically positioned worldwide. Volunteers share that information with callers as Santa soars through the night sky. The same Avaya Public Sector solutions used by NORAD Tracks Santa are also deployed by other key government agencies. As a result, it has been extensively tested by the Department of Defense Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) and is certified to be ‘Santa-ready.’

“NORAD Tracks Santa is a time-honored tradition and is special to all of us in the NORAD family,” said Preston Schlachter, NORAD Tracks Santa Program Manager. “We are excited to celebrate our 65^th anniversary of tracking Santa while finding new solutions to allow our volunteers to safely answer calls. We appreciate everything Avaya and our incredible team of corporate partners is doing to keep the magic alive this year.”

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