Network World Asia All Stars Award Recognizes Unified Communications Innovation

Hong Kong's Azurance leverages the joint Nortel and Microsoft solution to support mobile workers.

Hong Kong's Azurance leverages the joint Nortel and Microsoft solution to support mobile workers.

November 29, 2007. HONG KONG – Innovative use of unified communications technology has helped Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] customer Azurance, a Hong Kong IT and communications outsourcing company, win at the Network World Asia All Stars ceremony.

Held annually, the awards were given by a team of judges who evaluated the entries on three criteria: innovative use of technology to solve a business or workflow problem; the scope of the project; and the project’s ability to be of long-term value to the company.

Azurance recently implemented the joint Nortel and Microsoft Innovative Communications Alliance unified communications platform to improve customer contact via phone calls, the Internet, mobile phones, email, voicemail, and instant messaging. The solution has enhanced Azurance's customer support, streamlined its business processes, and improved communications among employees, customers, suppliers and partners. Long-distance call costs have been slashed by 90%, and staff are working over 26% more efficiently.

"Unified Communications gives our entire business greater mobility,” said Brad Pfeffer, regional technical director, hosted enterprise voice, Azurance. “The more our employees stay connected, the more they can collaborate to streamline business processes and improve customer service. Because employees are always on-call, customers’ questions, suggestions, issues and complaints can be quickly heard and resolved.”

After its successful implementation, Azurance began offering a hosted unified communications solution to small and medium business (SMB) customers, which pay a monthly fee to access email, instant messaging, telephony, conferencing, video, web and file sharing. These services are accessible via Web browser, mobile phone and other devices -- allowing the SMBs to focus less on IT and more on growing their business.

“We received many worthy entries this year, but Azurance’s successful unified communications rollout put it head and shoulders above the competition,” said Raymond Tan, editor of Network World Asia. “Azurance’s Network World Asia All Star success should make other firms sit up and take notice of unified communications’ benefits.”

“In today’s mobile world, unified communications is an essential capability,” said Adam Anger, senior director, Business and Marketing Organization, Microsoft Hong Kong. “Azurance’s success in the Network World Asia All Stars awards shows how unified communications can catalyze positive change with the business.”

“Unified communications breaks down the boundaries between previously separate forms of communication, helping employees work better and reinforcing Nortel’s philosophy of Business Made Simple,” said David Wong, managing director, Nortel Hong Kong, Macau and South China. “Azurance’s success in the Network World Asia All Star awards confirms the value of unified communications, while its innovative hosted service brings that value to even the smallest company.”

The Innovative Communications Alliance unified communications solution is based on Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and its client application, Microsoft Office Communicator 2005. Both integrate with the Nortel Communication Server 1000E and Call Pilot to deliver full-featured telephony and unified communications capabilities. Azurance also plans to upgrade the unified communications solution that integrates with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Since the formation of the Innovative Communications Alliance in July 2006, customers have purchased and deployed more than 430,000 licenses of the joint technology. More information about the Innovative Communications Alliance is available at www.innovativecommunicationsalliance.com.

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.