Nortel Takes The Risk And Complexity Out Of Unified Communications

TORONTO – Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] is broadening its global UC 1-2-3 program to include four new application-based starter kits that allow businesses of all types to easily migrate to a unified communications solution with several low-risk, low-cost options.


The new starter kits, now available in North America, are designed to ensure any business can quickly capitalize on the benefits of unified communications – one-click access to phone calls, instant messaging, video conferencing, and other applications – through a rapid deployment to its most critical users. The kits are pre-tested to work seamlessly with other vendors’ equipment allowing them to simply be plugged into an existing network – and minimizing the risk of network downtime that adding so many new features to a network all at once can often cause.

These new kits address the communications needs of employees wherever they are and include:

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Mobile IP Starter Kit: Offers affordable mobile IP with Nortel WLAN handsets that work on most existing WLAN infrastructures. This kit can help enhance customer service by leveraging the power of presence – which allows front-line workers, such as nurses or a hotel’s front-desk staff, to instantly access experts within their organization anywhere to resolve issues.

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Road Warrior Starter Kit: Provides traveling employees with a soft-phone application that helps lower mobile phone costs by allowing them to conduct calls from a laptop through any Internet access point.

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Work at Home Starter Kit: Helps businesses improve productivity and reduce real-estate costs by allowing employees to seamlessly work from home. Home-based workers also can assist in disaster recovery and business continuity from off-site locations unaffected by office-specific network issues.

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UC Starter Kit: For those companies ready for deploy a complete unified communications solution, this kit delivers presence, application sharing, click-to-call, and integrated conferencing from the desktop that’s easy to use and lowers the cost of conferencing by as much as 80 percent compared with outsourced conferencing solutions.

All of those starter kits provide free trial licenses for up to 25 users based on the Nortel Communication Server 1000 and are engineered to support Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 or Office Communications Server 2007. Another benefit comes from the price tag: UC 1-2-3 bundles are priced up to 15 percent below the same components purchased piece-by-piece.

These new kits join the line-up of simple-to-deploy unified communications solutions launched globally with regional customization in mid-2007. They include the Nortel Converged Office, Unified Messaging, and Nortel Multimedia Client for IBM Lotus Notes Starter Kits. Capitalizing on its alliances with Microsoft and IBM, UC 1-2-3 solutions allow for seamless integration regardless of the desktop environment. A proven integrator of unified communications solutions, Nortel also makes migration easier with a comprehensive Global Services portfolio that includes consulting, application, management, implementation and support services for multi-vendor, multi-technology networks.

“Many customers have told us that they are looking for the opportunity to experience the benefits of unified communications before rolling it out company wide,” said Net Payne, Nortel’s vice-president, North America Enterprise marketing. “With UC 1-2-3 we’ve created a set of packages that allow customers to touch, feel and experience unified communications through limited deployments that give them a first-hand look into this exciting productivity enhancer. This is another example of Nortel’s unwavering focus on making business simple for our customers and channel partners.”

Natalie Linder, vice president at Black Box Network Services, an Elite channel partner of Nortel, said the 360-degree nature of the campaign has her company excited about UC 1-2-3: “With Nortel, we can sell to the entire spectrum of UC opportunities – from those who want to take a more phased-in approach to customers who want to implement an entire UC solution. Nortel is there with us every step of the way – from sales training, to customer demos, to closing the deal – we work as a team.”

Gartner Inc, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, has positioned Nortel in the Leaders quadrant in the ’2007 Unified Communications Magic Quadrant’ report. To view Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, 20071 click here. According to Nortel data, companies deploying Nortel unified communications solutions can see a return on their investment in less than 10 months.

For more information on UC 1-2-3, including details of unified communications seminars and demonstration centers locations, please visit www.nortel.com/uc123.

About Nortel

Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel’s technologies are designed to help eliminate today’s barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.

Certain statements in this press release may contain words such as “could”, “expects”, “may”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “targets”, “envisions”, “seeks” and other similar language and are considered forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on Nortel’s current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the operating environment, economies and markets in which Nortel operates. These statements are subject to important assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and the actual outcome may be materially different from those contemplated in forward-looking statements. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel’s Annual Report on Form10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the SEC. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

*Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks.
Use of the terms “partner” and “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership between Nortel and any other party.

1The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2007 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant, by Bern Elliot, 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.