Alcatel-Lucent placed in Leaders Quadrant for enterprise Unified Communications

Industry analyst firm Gartner has positioned Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) in the leaders quadrant in its recently released assessment Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, 2007 (20 August 2007, B. Elliott). Inclusion in the quadrant requires evaluations in two sets of criteria – completeness of vision and ability to execute – considering such factors as products and services, overall viability, understanding of the market, and product/solution strategy.

Unified communications (UC) solutions coordinate and simplify management and control of a wide variety of communication methods, including IP telephony, integrated voice and email, conferencing technologies and instant messaging. UC enhances the productivity of individuals, groups and businesses, providing an opportunity for enterprises to improve both customer and employee satisfaction.

“Alcatel-Lucent is pleased to be placed by Gartner in the Leaders Quadrant,” said Tom Burns, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s enterprise solutions activities. “Products such as the OmniPCX and OmniTouch Unified Communication applications suite are fundamental to transforming services within a business and creating secure, real-time communications between employees, partners and customers.”

According to the published Gartner report, “Another key capability of UC is that it offers a method to integrate communication functions directly with business applications; Gartner calls this capability ‘communications-enabled business processes.’”

Burns added, “Alcatel-Lucent is addressing the need to bridge communications functions and business applications by incorporating ‘user profiling’ into its customized planning and ordering processes, which matches the needs of employees and their jobs with technology options. Alcatel-Lucent user profiles allow businesses of every size to fully realize the benefits of UC when building or upgrading their networks.”

*The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2007 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.