Nortel inks deal with Microsoft for unified communication

BANGALORE: Microsoft and

Nortel

entered into a strategic four-year alliance based on a shared vision for unified

communication.






The alliance will allow both companies to drive new growth opportunities and
transform businesses communications, reducing costs and complexity and improving

productivity for customers.






The agreement included provisions for extending it beyond the initial four
years. Nortel will be Microsoft's strategic partner for advanced unified

communications solutions and systems integration, the two companies will form

the innovative communications alliance and Microsoft and Nortel will deploy the

other's technologies in their enterprise networks.






Nortel and Microsoft will change traditional business phone systems into
software, with a Microsoft unified communications software platform and Nortel

software products to provide further advanced telephony functionality.






This software-centric approach will provide the easiest transition path for
businesses, helping enable them to reduce the total cost of ownership and better

protect current and future investments. It will also more quickly enable the

creation of new, innovative applications.






"Nortel and Microsoft have each led fundamental transformations in their own
market - Nortel's digital innovation and Microsoft's software on every desktop,"

said Mike Zafirovski, president and CEO of Nortel. "By combining our unique

strengths, Microsoft and Nortel will accelerate the delivery of unified

communications - delivering to our customers a higher-quality user experience,

with greater reliability and lower total cost of ownership. That's where we can

make a real difference."






"We are investing together because the communications industry is at an
inflection point," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. "We will have deep

collaboration in product development with Nortel, allowing us to rapidly deliver

high-quality, highly reliable solutions that will support mission-critical

communications. The opportunity for our customers is fantastic. We will enable

them to realize tremendous economic and business benefits from unified

communications."






"This is a gutsy play for Nortel - accelerating the move of our voice technology
into software and working with the world's software leader as part of our

broader business strategy to transform the company into a software and services

leader," Zafirovski said. "From this transaction, we believe we can capture well

beyond $1 billion in new revenue, ramping up with increased momentum through

2009 via professional services, voice products and applications, as well as data

pull-through in the enterprise."






"Unified communications will drive the next major advance in individual, team
and organizational productivity in today's 24x7, always-connected and

increasingly mobile work environment," said Jeff Raikes, president (Business

Division) at Microsoft. "Our software-based approach puts people at the center

of communications through a single identity across e-mail, voice mail, voice

over Internet protocol (VoIP) call processing, instant messaging and video, and

intuitively embeds communications capabilities into people's everyday work

processes, including the Microsoft Office system and third-party software

applications."






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