Nortel and UC beyond the bankruptcy

While Nortel's bankruptcy may have doomed its strategic UC relationship with Microsoft, some are betting the Canadian company still can be a viable enterprise player after the smoke clears.

Microsoft put considerable resources into its Innovative Communications Alliance (ICA) with Nortel, but Microsoft has to move on and further spread out its UC relationships with a wider range of vendors so it won't get stuck if Nortel can't continue to move forward; one analyst gives the partnership a "50/50 chance' to survive.

However, other IP telephony vendors might not want to play ball with Microsoft, feeling they got stiffed earlier, and/or that they do not need to work with Microsoft to be successful in the marketplace.

Regardless, many experts believe Nortel will emerge from bankruptcy as a smaller company focused on enterprise IP phone and UC products. Enterprises might be hesitant to work with a restructured Nortel, but if they already have an existing relationship with the company, they might not have a lot to risk, compared to starting over from scratch with another vendor.

Enterprise customers have also done quite well with Nortel IP phone and UC offerings, and many are looking to move into full-blown UC deployments. Over the summer, about 78 percent of existing Nortel customers said they were planning to deploy UC within two years, according to a survey conducted by the International Nortel Networks Users Association.

For more:
- Speculation on Nortel's future in UC. Post [1].