Mark Evans at All About Nortel asks Did Microsoft Go Wrong in their choice to partner with Nortel as a voice/pbx partner? The short answer, in my opinion, is no. Nortel has been a great partner and helped Microsoft get its foot in the door in the voice world. The relationship was invaluable in gaining credibility and entrance to Nortel's large installed base. You'll notice I'm speaking solely in the past tense, here's why...
Sources Commenters at All About Nortel say the partnership is set to expire in about 3 months, however Bo Gowan from Nortel's New Media PR group jumped in to correct that notion via phone this morning. According to Gowan, the partnership will go the full 4 years, extending into 2010. Microsoft's new version of OCS with SIP trunking capabilities is set to launch in about 3 months. Will the increased telephony function complement or further serve to replace the PBX? In other words is this "VoIP as you are" or "VoIP with us".
Microsoft needed Nortel to gain credibility in the voice space. Of course, entrance to all of Nortel's global accounts didn't hurt either. I'm not sure what Nortel got out of the deal, but it's hard to see much positive about them lately. Microsoft got valuable voice/VoIP experience and accellerated it's time to market. I'm amazed at how quickly they've become a real player in the voice space. I don't know a lot of people who have implemented OCS as a PBX replacement but it's at least part of the conversation now. To be spoken in the same sentence as Nortel, Avaya and Siemns regarding voice in just two years is nothing short of extraordinary. My hat's off the MS OCS product team... and I think they got more than a little help from their relationship with Nortel.
I'm excited to see what this year brings in the UC arena. I think the down economy will drive innovation to make UC solutions even more compelling. I'll be at VoiceCon next week. If you'll be there too drop me a line and we'll hang out.
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Blog Comments are Sources???
Alex, wow am I disappointed in this post. The "sources" you site claiming that Nortel's alliance with Microsoft is set to expire in a few months are reader comments!
This "source" information is factually incorrect.
A quick check of the original alliance press release would have clearly shown that Nortel and Microsoft entered into a *four year* alliance in July 2006. That is *20* months from now...more than a year and a half.
That press release is publicly available for all to see here:http://tinyurl.com/ntht3
Details on the 4-year deal also show up on page 1 from multiple sources by doing a simple Google search for "Nortel Microsoft alliance"
Interesting
Bo, very interesting. I've found that the commenters on AAN are usually quite accurate and often Nortel employees or insiders. The press release was from 2006. A lot can change in 2+ years. Just 2 weeks ago we would have thought Google and Yahoo to be the next ad juggernaught, but that's obviously not the case right now. My emails to Nortel PR to confirm the date went unanswered interestingly enough. I'd be happy to make a correction if the information is incorrect. Please let me know your email address and we can discuss offline.
Quick response
Bo, thank you for the quick contact this morning. You are an asset to Nortel in your ability to present their position clearly and transparently. Ive made the correction in the blog above and look forward to chatting with you again in the future.
Thx Alex
Thanks Alex...good talking to you.
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