A Long and Winding Road for Nortel Contact Center Customers

Moderated by: Jason Alley, Vanguard Communications

Yesterday my boss forwarded a copy of a Network World article titled, “Nortel mulls bankruptcy.”  My immediate reaction was, “Wow!”  I worked for Nortel in the 90s when the company was well run and flourishing, and the thought of them filing for bankruptcy would have seemed absurd.  My delayed reaction was, “Makes sense.”  The past seven years as a consultant, I haven’t seen many large enterprise companies make a significant investment in Nortel contact center or enterprise telephony solutions.  What a long and winding road for Nortel customers.  So, now what?

While “mulling” bankruptcy isn’t the same as filing papers, this move certainly will dampen enthusiasm of potential purchasers, who now will definitely look more closely at alternatives.  Interestingly, the alternatives are broader, but today there are no clear-cut answers.   Aspect? Avaya? Cisco? IBM? Microsoft? Others?  Back in my Nortel days this would have been a pretty easy decision with marginal risk. 

Today’s world is a different story.  What’s happening, of course, is that traditional telephony is being overtaken by the industry move to IP and to unified communications (UC).  Traditional vendors are migrating their lines; new suppliers are working to get the functionality and reliability demanded by the market.

Both Aspect and Avaya are strong legacy companies now privately held and re-tooling to become more competitive in the broader UC space.  However, there is no guarantee they will be successful in doing so.

Cisco has gained significant ground in the enterprise telephony and contact center markets, but what about those Microsoft and IBM guys coming down the road?  UC solutions expand beyond traditional voice into desktops, and right into their sweet-spot. 

IBM and Microsoft are making significant investments in this space, but do their UC offerings deliver enough functionality and reliability for enterprise customers to leave traditional telephony solutions behind?  If not, how long will this take?  Do they really have the expertise to deliver?

Mulling over this takes me back to, “Wow!”  Gone are the days of straight roads and easy decisions…  I guess if they can’t be easy, they can at least be well informed.  Customers looking to migrate to new platforms during this volatile period should do their homework and develop a UC transformation plan that is right for their business and accounts for mission critical applications such as the contact center.  Of course the right solution will “depend” on one’s environment and strategy, as well as market realities and predictions.

Have you done this work?  Where are you placing your bets?

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When selecting a specific product the top priorities given by the customer is functionality and reliability in terms of cost and benefits .