Nortel Unveils ’My Business’ Campaign For North America

TORONTO – Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] introduced its ‘My Business’ campaign, featuring a robust set of training and demand generation initiatives for its partners and an innovative set of solutions designed to provide big business functionality for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Drawing on 20 years of experience meeting the needs of SMBs, Nortel’s new campaign addresses the challenges faced by today’s SMB customers, who have the same business needs as larger enterprises but are more limited in their resources. My Business offers packages including integrated voice and data, mobility, and unified messaging, which are built specifically for SMBs. A full complement of installation, operations, administration, maintenance, and technical support services are available to further facilitate the adoption of these communications solutions.

Nortel’s My Business solutions are being implemented by AT&T as part of its Flexible Reach service. John Regan, vice president, business marketing, AT&T said, “Together, Nortel’s My Business solutions and AT&T’s Flexible Reach service will simplify our SMB customers’ communications systems so that they can concentrate on running their business rather than spending their valuable resources on managing their infrastructure.”

“Our new My Business solutions, which span a broad range of SMB technology needs, are designed to grow with business demands while maximizing return on investment,” said Net Payne, vice president, North American Marketing, Nortel. “The My Business campaign focuses on providing SMB customers with flexible and scalable solutions that lay the foundation for future unified communications capabilities.”

Allied Advertising, Public Relations Boston headquarters is currently equipped with voice and data through Nortel’s Business Communications Manager 400 (BCM400) and is rolling-out BCM50 and BCM200 as part of a My Business package to meet the specific needs of its 22 remote locations and larger offices across North America. Brian Weir, director of technical services, Allied Advertising said, “Nortel understands the challenges my business faces each day and my need for reliable communications that can grow with my company’s demands. Nortel’s new packages will enable me to build on our existing technologies to create a base for VoIP now and grow with enhanced services in the future.”

Nortel’s sales and distribution partners can offer SMBs custom configurations with robust promotions and incentives as well as enhanced IP Telephony and data packaged solutions supporting four to 50 users. Also available are: an online SMB Quote Builder, available mid-May, to simplify the ordering process; a new web-based SMB Coach Tool for on-demand solution proposals; flexible service options to complement the reseller’s own capabilities; and a comprehensive suite of demand generation initiatives, marketing tools, and training programs.

“Nortel’s My Business campaign offers SMBs an efficient, cost-effective migration path to full IP-based systems,” said Dennis Nally, vice president of sales, Summatis Communications, a Nortel channel partner. “With Nortel’s BCM portfolio as the foundation of the packages, our customers can meet the challenges of keeping a dispersed workforce connected, control costs and provide employees secure network access anywhere, anytime. These are the choices my SMB customers require. By partnering with Nortel, I can easily meet my customer needs.”

Based on the award winning BCM product line and complementary data portfolio, Nortel’s promotions and incentives for custom solutions are available now. The My Business packages, available in mid-May, will provide a wide range of options for reliable IP telephony, with resilient enterprise-class switching, wireless LAN, security, VPN and quality of service capabilities through self-manageable LAN and WAN starter kits. My Business packages will also enable SMBs to adopt IP phones on their own timetable with innovative VoIP Gateway Trunking software that will support hybrid IP/TDM environments. New capabilities, like call routing based on employee skills and built-in productivity applications like unified messaging, will help boost customer productivity, while optional services will be available to complement partner service offerings.