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Its financial restatements concluded and its new management team intact, Nortel still faces some hurdles in completing the turnaround initiated after an accounting scandal three years ago.
Customers, partners and analysts all agree that Nortel can improve – and is working to improve – business relations with users and resellers. The company also has to further rationalize its product line, which observers contend is still confusing and redundant after acquisitions that took place almost 10 years ago.
In addition to products, Nortel must also rationalize its lines of business in order to become a truly formidable No. 2 supplier to Cisco in the enterprise. The company must also partner, purchase or develop its way back into the IP core and edge router space, watchers say, and figure out a way to scale to compete with the likes of Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia-Siemens and other combined competitors formed from mergers and acquisitions.
“They’re a relatively small company in an industry of giants now,” says Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at The Yankee Group. “You really wonder how they can compete long term with some of these larger companies.”
| Nortel's priorities The company's self-described keys to completing its comeback. |
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Nortel says it continues to build momentum after installing a new management team over the past year and clarifying the markets it intends to pursue with vigor – Enterprise, IP TV, WiMAX, IP Multimedia Subsystem, Metro Ethernet and professional services. Company executives acknowledge though, that the turnaround is still in its initial stages.
“I think there’s very much still things to accomplish,” says George Riedel, Nortel’s chief strategy officer. “I think we’ve built a lot of momentum and a good foundation, but we’re not confused about this being still early in the journey to complete the turnaround.”
Riedel says the top five company priorities in furthering its comeback effort are:
• Reducing costs or expanding margin by $1.5 billion over the next several years;
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Comments (16)
Nortel Data Networking ProductsBy ylnahar on June 9, 2008, 8:54 pmBeing a reseller for both Nortel and competitor Cisco 's data networking products, I must stress on the fact that Nortel has not been producing positive financial...
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Nortel Data ProductsBy Anonymous on January 21, 2008, 2:41 pmI work for a Nortel channel partner. We are also channel partners with several other hardware vendors. First and foremost, trying to locate the 'right fit' data...
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Quality Products & CiscoBy Former Nortel Employee on June 7, 2007, 5:50 amI for one do question their ability to make quality products. While they have made quality products in the field of telecommunications and even their Passports...
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Argue with the interviewer??By Anonymous on February 5, 2007, 1:53 pmWas it just me or was the company constantly saying, "No, that is not how things are. This is really what our customers are saying..." So which one is out of touch,...
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Nortel was, for a period,By Teleco-Man on January 31, 2007, 9:33 amNortel was, for a period, one of the most respected and admired companies for teleco solutions and like SO MANY others in this industry became less focused on standards...
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