Tackling the inadequate Nortel R&D model

20% is late-lifecycle spend.

60% is focused on growth and mature product activity.

20% is now directed to emerging new technologies and markets.

This group, consisting of thousands of R&D personnel, was created to provide a common foundation that could be leveraged by the Nortel business unit R&D teams.

Under this group, Nortel centralized platform work, common components, common management, silicon development, tools and R&D processes that could be leveraged across a range of Nortel product teams.

This build once, use many approach goes directly to creating efficient reuse in Nortel and allows them to avoid hundreds of millions of duplicate spend in each area.

This consolidated management chain allows Nortel R&D to collectively act as one, make rapid decisions and to develop cross-business unit processes to, again, drive efficiency and scale.

CMMI is generally seen as the gold standard for process, and the results of a disciplined process and operational structure are well understood.

Nortel has now completed much of the baseline, have begun the efforts, and are starting to see the results.

CMMI is a long-term Nortel commitment to process efficiency and quality, and unlike other initiatives in this list, is much more evolutionary than revolutionary.

For example, Nortel has reconstituted a core industrial design group creating centralized Design to Value and Design Cost Reduction groups to drive cost reductions and margin improvement.

This IPR recognition was driven by the importance of IPR to Nortel’s future and its passion about recognizing and thanking Nortel technical teams for the extra time and effort they take to invent and capture those inventions - essential to a healthy R&D environment.