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Nortel Simplifies Move to Unified Communications for Medium-Sized Businesses


WEBWIRE

LONDON – 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 features can help businesses realize costs-savings and an increase in productivity of up 18 percent.

Available in Europe, Middle East and Africa from October 14, the Nortel Business Communications Manager (BCM) 450 speeds the transition from legacy digital equipment and enables firms to save up to 70 percent on their original investment by reusing existing equipment.

“Our new communications technology is helping us provide travelers in Athens with the best transportation services across the tram railway network which has 35 metro trains and 48 main stations.” says Joanna Kakarantza , head of Telecoms and Data Networks Division at Tram SA. “Timely and effective team communications is vitally important for addressing the daily challenges of such a complex transportation network. The new Nortel BCM450 delivers the advanced features we need to evolve to a unified communications environment, bringing our organization the benefits of improved productivity and efficiency, and helping us to provide our customers with timely and reliable services.”

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 (SMBs). By offering capacity for up to 300 users, the BCM450 positions Nortel to better serve the large 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.

Industry analyst firm Dell’Oro ranks Nortel number one for the first and second quarters of 2008 based on number of Hybrid-IP lines shipped globally.

“Medium size firms are a strong driving force of the European economy. Businesses deploying Hybrid-IP solutions in the 11 to 250 user category accounted for almost 60 percent of total European demand in the first half of 2008” said Stephanie Watson, general manager at the analyst firm MZA. "The majority of unified communications solutions to date have focused on larger enterprise needs. Nortel’s new BCM450 opens up these functionalities to the small to medium-sized organizations that can derive key productivity benefits from the messaging, mobility and collaboration capabilities. BCM450 complements Nortel’s existing portfolio, bridging the gap between the existing Norstar and BCM50 portfolio and Nortel’s CS1000/2000 portfolio.

“In difficult economic environments small to mid size organizations are looking more than ever for ways to drive internal productivity and effectiveness in responding to customer needs. Nortel’s new BCM 450 enables many of these capabilities while allowing existing Nortel customers to still derive value from previous investments made in Nortel SMB solutions. From the channel’s perspective, BCM450 opens up a new lucrative market segment opportunity with minimum new training required for those familiar with the BCM50 environment” added Watson.

“Medium-sized businesses are getting serious about achieving efficient and effective collaboration inside their organizations and with their customers and partners,” said Amanda Giddins, SMB and distribution leader, Nortel EMEA. “Designed to meet their immediate and future needs, Nortel BCM450 opens up unified communications to any business of up to 300 connected employees, helping to accelerate responsiveness and decision making.”

The unified communications features of the BCM450 include:

* Unified messaging, consolidating voice, fax and e-mail from a single device.
* Message forwarding, available in one or 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 can also help 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.

The BCM450 will be available from Nortel and through Nortel strategic partners and channels throughout the EMEA region.



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