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Nortel Simplifies Move to Unified Communications for Medium-Sized Business


WEBWIRE

New Solution Offers Time and Cost-Saving Unified Communications Features, Saving up to 70 percent of Prior Product Investments.

ORONTO – A new solution from Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT ] makes it easier for medium-sized businesses with up to 300 employees to evolve to unified communications. By connecting people faster, improving collaboration and speeding up the time to decision, Nortel estimates that unified communications can help businesses realize cost-savings and an increase in productivity of up to 18 percent.

Available globally October 14, the Business Communications Manager (BCM) 450 speeds the transition from legacy digital equipment and can enable firms to save up to 70 percent of their original investment by reusing existing equipment.

“Deploying Nortel’s BCM450 has enabled a cost-effective evolution to unified communications and will drive improved productivity across our 10 locations,” said Paul Evans, executive vice president, EBA Engineering. “We were able to leverage a large portion of our original Norstar investment while evolving to new unified communications capabilities. The networking and unified communications features of BCM portfolio have driven efficiencies within our team by allowing us to better connect and collaborate between our multiple sites and mobile workforce.”

“Customers can increase the velocity of business operations by bringing people together faster for efficient and effective collaboration,” said Joel Hackney, president, Enterprise Solutions, Nortel. “The BCM450 accelerates the move to unified communications, enabling medium-sized businesses to gain a competitive edge in an environment where speed, simplicity and savings are integral to success.”

Nortel’s new offering expands the reach of its award-winning BCM portfolio – a suite of Hybrid-IP solutions, built with unified communications functionality, each designed to meet the needs of different sized small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). By offering capacity for up to 300 users, the BCM450 positions Nortel to better serve the larger user segment of the global SMB communications market. According to Nortel projections, the worldwide SMB communications market is valued at US$11 billion and growing at a rate of 9.3 percent annually.

Nortel’s SMB portfolio was evaluated five out of five by industry analyst firm Gartner in its Critical Capabilities for Unified Communications report.** Furthermore, market research firm Dell’Oro ranks Nortel number one for the first and second quarters of 2008 based on number of Hybrid-IP lines shipped globally.

The BCM450 is available from Nortel, or through its strategic vendors, including AT&T.

“AT&T has a long history of working with Nortel to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses with the BCM portfolio – one which has become synonymous with reliability, performance and applications tailored for the unique needs of this market,” said Mark Keiffer, president, regional business markets, AT&T. “This new solution will enable these firms to realize time and cost-savings benefits.”

The unified communications features of the BCM450 include:

* Unified messaging, consolidating voice, fax and e-mail messages onto a single device.
* Message forwarding, available in one to two months, which sends voicemails and faxes to the most convenient desktop or mobile device. For workers on the move, this can save long distance and roaming charges when retrieving messages.
* Meet-Me Conferencing that can establish teleconferences for up to 120 participants. This can eliminate the need for external services and reduce teleconferencing expenses.
* Computer Telephony Integration, which allows the use of third-party applications to control telephone services, such as click-to-call or automatic screen “pop” with customer information when they call.
* Intelligent Contact Center functionality, which quickly directs clients to the right contact.

Also, SIP compliance provides the foundation for expansion of the solution’s unified communications functionality with applications developed by third-parties certified by the Nortel Developer Program .

The BCM450 also helps businesses save on energy costs. A BCM450 solution can save up to 40 percent in energy costs compared to a similar offering from the competition.***

The flexibility inherent in the BCM450 allows it to adapt as businesses grow or as priorities shift. The solution comes loaded with hundreds of telephony features and integrated applications that can be activated without installing additional expensive hardware. Capacity for 300 users provides for easy scalability and customization can be accomplished with applications from third-party developers.

A robust and resilient data network provides the foundation for organizations to get the most out of unified communications features. The BCM450 can be effectively paired with the networking capabilities of the BSG8 and BSG12, announced today . The BSG combines multiple components and software into a single solution, which Nortel estimates is up to 45 percent less expensive than purchasing all of these elements separately.



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