Nortel Names Winners Of Enterprise Customer Recognition Awards highlighting Today’s Most Innovative Businesses

TAMPA, FLORIDA – Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] announced the winners of its first annual Enterprise Customer Recognition Awards. These awards acknowledge Nortel customers who are implementing leading-edge technologies to create measurable value for their business and employees.

Awards were given in five categories: Technology Innovation Best Practice; Business Innovation Best Practice; Enterprise Transformation (less than 1,000 employees); Enterprise Transformation (more than 1,000 employees); and Sustained Excellence. Winners were recognized today by Nortel and the International Nortel Networks Users Association (INNUA) at Global Connect, the annual INNUA conference held in Tampa, Florida. Winners include: Jyske Bank, Fred Weber Incorporated, Goldsmith Agio Helms, Commonwealth of Kentucky, and Pacific Life Insurance Company.

“These customers are leading the market in driving business value through Nortel technology implementations,” said Steve Slattery, president, Enterprise Networks, Nortel. “The winners are excellent examples of companies working in an environment where communications and business processes are linked. Through innovative and creative implementations of Nortel applications, these customers demonstrate that they lead the market in driving technology implementations that simplify business activities and positively impact everyday operations.”

In the category Technology Innovation Best Practice for demonstrating the most resourceful use of developing technologies or service deployment strategies, the award went to Jyske Bank, the second largest independent Danish bank with more than 4,000 employees and 119 Danish branches. Jyske Bank was challenged with enhancing its customer experience while creating efficiencies across their dispersed branches. Today, the company has created a real-time environment with VoIP and Unified Communications (UC) integration for both customer and employee needs.

The award for Business Innovation Best Practice was handed to Fred Weber Incorporated, a 300 million-a-year, employee-owned business in St. Louis specializing in full-service concrete and asphalt paving projects. The company had the most creative approach to tackling tough business challenges and generating results that improved service to their customers, in addition to a substantial return on investment (ROI). Fred Weber used a UC solution to address their critical need to make construction foremen available to vendors while onsite, connect 25 remote sites into a unified call center, and support partnerships with 10 subsidiaries and numerous contractors.

Two awards were given in the category of Enterprise Transformation – one for businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees and one for businesses with more than 1,000 employees. The awards recognize customers that demonstrated the most visionary view of business value created by Nortel technology.

For the first award, the honor went to Minneapolis, MN based private investment banking firm, Goldsmith Agio Helms, for using a UC solution that keeps employees connected anywhere, anytime, creating a competitive edge and providing exceptional service levels to customers. The company now has a workplace transformed from a physical entity to a virtual one where the firm’s professionals are productive and accessible where ever they are.

For the second award, the Commonwealth of Kentucky was selected for leveraging a network solution to assist in its growing business, centralizing service, and implementing a disaster recover plan. The Commonwealth has also begun to implement a solution that will provide high-speed access to a number of facilities in and around the metro Frankfort area within the state capitol. This new wireless infrastructure will provide the state government with rapid, inexpensive bandwidth along with an enhanced user experience.

The final award for Sustained Excellence went to Pacific Life Insurance Company – a financial services company – for their substantial commitment to Nortel solutions over time and through a long-range vision of how technology enables business. With a 100 percent Nortel end-to-end solution in place, this customer uses Unified Communications as a way of increasing productivity and generating revenue.

For more information on these awards and the winning customers, please visit www.nortel.com/cra.