Free Newsletter
Nortel and UC beyond the bankruptcy
While Nortel's bankruptcy may have doomed its strategic UC relationship with Microsoft, some are betting the Canadian company still can be a viable enterprise player after the smoke clears.
Microsoft put considerable resources into its Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA) with Nortel, but Microsoft has to move on and further spread out its UC relationships with a wider range of vendors so it won't get stuck if Nortel can't continue to move forward; one analyst gives the partnership a "50/50 chance' to survive.
However, other IP telephony vendors might not want to play ball with Microsoft, feeling they got stiffed earlier, and/or that they do not need to work with Microsoft to be successful in the marketplace.
Regardless, many experts believe Nortel will emerge from bankruptcy as a smaller company focused on enterprise IP phone and UC products. Enterprises might be hesitant to work with a restructured Nortel, but if they already have an existing relationship with the company, they might not have a lot to risk, compared to starting over from scratch with another vendor.
Enterprise customers have also done quite well with Nortel IP phone and UC offerings, and many are looking to move into full-blown UC deployments. Over the summer, about 78 percent of existing Nortel customers said they were planning to deploy UC within two years, according to a survey conducted by the International Nortel Networks Users Association.
For more:
- Speculation on Nortel's future in UC. Post.
Related stories
Nortel's future focus, partnerships unclear - FierceTelecom
Microsoft/Nortel UC relationship in peril? - FierceVoIP
More stories about VoIP Unified Communications bankruptcy UC Enterprise Customers ip telephony Nortel
Comments
Posted by Dave Michels | January 30, 2009 - 2:08am
I don't see Nortel being very viable after Bankruptcy. Telecom is all about risk mitigation, so the market would be tough on them. They will be behind in innovation - so their only play is installed base.
Seems to me, Microsoft or even Siemens could do a lot more a lot faster buying Nortel at a discount and building Nortel migration technologies for their own platforms.
Dave Michels
Posted by Anonymous | January 30, 2009 - 5:34am
No one in the industry enjoys seeing a quality supplier like Nortel going into Chapter 11 and in the UK & Europe administration. Here in the UK major customers and the Public Sector will at best be uncomfortable with trading with Nortel for up to 12 months after and if they exit from administration (For Public Sector organisations procurement regulations may also prevent any dealings with Nortel, for 12 months).
I personally think Nortel’s demise will be one of many. Even if Nortel is able to continue with its enterprise business, industry consolidation will mean that Nortel as a stand a lone company is not long for this world. A tie up with Siemens or even Cisco would both be exciting and would help stabilise some if not all jobs in many countries, after it’s painful and required internal restructure. I wish Nortel and its current employees well over the next few months.
SHARE
WITH:
Comments (3) | Post a comment