The Nortel and Microsoft Innovative Communications alliance celebrates its' first anniversary

One year ago Microsoft Corp. and Nortel entered into a unique alliance to transform business communications by combining Nortel’s network quality and Microsoft’s reliable unified communications software. Today, companies are embracing the benefits of the alliance and have
purchased and are deploying more than 430,000 licenses for joint solutions. As such, these customers are reducing costs and enhancing their business communication for improved productivity and lower total cost of ownership.

July 16, 2007 - One year ago Microsoft Corp. and Nortel entered into a unique alliance to transform business communications by combining Nortel’s network quality and Microsoft’s reliable unified communications software. Today, companies are embracing the benefits of the alliance and have purchased and are deploying more than 430,000 licenses for joint solutions. As such, these customers are reducing costs and enhancing their business communication for improved productivity and lower total cost of ownership.

“Nortel’s alliance with Microsoft has been a tremendous success for us and our customers. Our deep collaboration in product development is providing businesses with better ways to communicate, and our joint go-to-market activity has already produced tremendous results. In addition, our alliance with Microsoft is opening doors to new customers for our entire enterprise portfolio, and is a key reason for the accelerated performance of our Enterprise Solutions business year-over-year.” Steve Slattery, president, Enterprise Networks, Nortel

Over the past year, Microsoft and Nortel have begun to streamline their licensing to make it easier for customers to buy and manage joint solutions, hosted more than 60 road show events in 35 countries, and opened 100 lab and demonstration centers worldwide for companies to experience the solutions firsthand. As the alliance enters its second year, the companies are continuing their joint research and development across enterprise, carrier and mobile product lines and are poised to ship a variety of new and updated products in the coming months, including Nortel's UC integrated branch.  

What our Customers are saying

“Our relationship with Nortel is an important component of our strategy for unified communications and over the past year we’ve hit significant milestones that benefit both companies. In the year ahead, we expect to see even more robust customer interest around the world based on our joint technology solutions.” Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president for the Unified Communications Group, Microsoft “Our new Nortel and Microsoft solution will significantly reduce the time staff spend on the road, enabling us to cut travel costs, use time more efficiently and be more environmentally friendly.” John Thornbury, director of ICT, Worcestershire Health Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

Services

“Scholarship and student lifestyles are very communication intensive. Our move to unified communications at IU begins an era of long anticipated media convergence to give our students and faculty an educational advantage at one of America's most IT-savvy universities.” Brad Wheeler, Indiana University chief information officer

“Our Unified Communications system combines the power of Nortel's IP telephony with the collaboration of Microsoft Live Communication Server and the Unified Messaging features of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 to provide a seamless user-friendly experience.” Brad Pfeffer, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, Azurance.

More information about the Innovative Communications Alliance is available at www.innovativecommunicationsalliance.com.