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Partner Solution White Paper
Microsoft and Nortel Give Customers a Head Start
in Communications Convergence
Overview “When Microsoft tests integration with Office
Country or Region: Canada
Industry: Telecommunications
Communications Server 2007, 80 percent of the
testing is done with Nortel equipment.”
Partner Profile
Hayete Gallot, Alliance Director, Nortel
Founded in 1895, Toronto-based Nortel
manufactures telecommunications
equipment. The company has 30,000
employees globally, with 2006 revenues of Companies are looking for ways to improve their communications
U.S.$11.42 billion.
infrastructure to shorten sales cycles, improve customer service,
Business Situation and drive overall business performance. Responding to this need,
Unlike some other telephony vendors,
Nortel believe that software sits at the Toronto-based Nortel, a leading telecommunications equipment
center of the transformation of the manufacturer, and Microsoft established the Innovative
business communications. Software is
easier to customize and evolve over time, Communications Alliance to help customers move from stand-alone
providing customers with greater flexibility communications methods to unified communications solutions. The
and investment protection.
Alliance is a joint effort encompassing research and development,
Solution go-to-market activities, and systems integration services. This effort
Nortel and Microsoft created the Innovative
Communications Alliance, which focuses unites e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and voice
on research and development, marketing, communications to create one streamlined user experience. The
and consulting, and ensures the
interoperability of each company’s solutions integrate Microsoft® unified communications technologies
products. with Nortel business-grade telephony, conferencing, and data
Benefits networking strengths to streamline communications and enhance
Tighter integration critical business capabilities.
More-reliable connectivity
Lower cost of ownership
Increased capabilities
Situation technologies and creating new scenarios
Nortel is a leading global manufacturer of around its use.
telecommunications equipment, with
revenues in 2006 of U.S.$11.42 billion. To Microsoft and Nortel sought a way for the two
solidify its position in a competitive companies to work closely together to meet
marketplace, Nortel is working with Microsoft the most pressing business needs of their
to offer its customers—including telephony customers who were considering unified
carriers and enterprises around the world— communications solutions. Making the switch
the latest in unified communications from traditional telephony to these new
capabilities. solutions can be challenging from a technical
perspective, raising concerns that in-house
Unlike some of their competitors, Nortel and resources will not be enough to maintain new
Microsoft believe that software sits at the systems. To avoid costly rip-and-replace
center of this communications revolution. scenarios, new solutions need to integrate
Software is easier to customize and evolve with existing IT infrastructure and extend the
over time, providing customers with greater value of current telephone equipment. And
flexibility and investment protection. customers need experienced help in
determining how to best implement unified
The convergence in communications involves communications to help their employees
being able to unify different types of work together more efficiently, productively,
messaging, (such as e-mail and voice) within and cost-effectively.
a single software-based solution that is
accessible through a variety of desktop Solution
programs, including those in the Microsoft® In July 2006, Microsoft and Nortel formed the
Office suites. Innovative Communications Alliance to help
enterprise customers effectively deploy
An important element of unified unified communications technologies. The
communications is the concept of presence strategic alliance is focusing on three areas:
awareness, which employees can use to research and development, a joint go-to-
easily view the availability of colleagues and market strategy, and consulting services.
determine the best way to contact them:
phone, e-mail, or instant messaging (IM). The companies are establishing five joint
Microsoft Office Communications Server collaboration centers. The first two are in
2007 offers enhanced presence. Raleigh, North Carolina, and Maidenhead,
England. The Alliance plans to open three
The joint solutions also extend traditional more—in Mexico, Australia, and Asia—later in
telephony capabilities to voice over Internet 2007.
Protocol (VoIP) communications, extending
advanced telephony services to a company’s Before the Alliance was formed, Nortel had
computing environment. already integrated its Communication Server
1000 IP PBX with Microsoft Live
Between Nortel with its more than 100 years Communications Server 2005 and Microsoft
of experience in telecommunications and Office Communicator 2005 to offer
Microsoft with its prevalence in desktop corporatewide presence, instant messaging,
programs, the two companies are shaping the and telephony integration. Currently more
direction of unified communications than 200 companies, representing some
400,000 users, have adopted these solutions; mobility and client solutions; and
capabilities. Business Optimized Networking
enhancements. Such capabilities create a
Now engineers from Nortel and Microsoft are foundation that delivers customer benefits
collaborating to integrate the Nortel portfolio today, but there is still a long way to go. “The
of IP-Private Branch Exchange (PBX) process is not static,” says Hayete Gallot,
products—including Communications Server Alliance Leader for Nortel. “Our R&D teams
1000 and Communications Server 2100— are working together in a long-term shared
with Office Communications Server 2007. product roadmap, in which Nortel provides
The engineers are focusing on extensive software-based telephony features and
interoperability testing between each services to the Microsoft unified
company’s software and hardware to make communications platform.”
deployment as smooth as possible.
At the Collaboration Centers, as well as at
This cooperation between Nortel and more than 100 other demonstration facilities,
“We can deliver an in- Microsoft engineers extends to new devices customers and prospects can see integrated
depth proof of concept and scenarios. For instance, the Secure solutions, many of which are tailored to
Router 4134 from Nortel will support mirror their own environments “We can
for customers at our Microsoft mediation technologies to optimize deliver an in-depth proof of concept for
collaboration centers. voice services in branch offices and reduce IT customers at our collaboration centers,” says
management challenges. Conferencing is Pat Davis, General Manager at Nortel Global
We can replicate the also enhanced through joint solutions: Nortel Services. “We can replicate the customers’
customers’ situation Multimedia Conferencing can be deployed situation and let them see how the products
with Office Communications Server 2007 to working together can improve their
and let them see how provide conference participants the most business.” The two companies are also
the products working appropriate interface to the conference working on ways to apply their integrated
based on their location and device of choice. systems to improving how customers do
together can improve business.
their business.” Microsoft is also partnering in a joint venture
between Nortel and Korea-based LG The organization’s joint marketing efforts
Pat Davis, General Manager, Nortel Global Electronics called LG-Nortel. The joint venture involve marketing and field sales engineers
Services produces the LG-Nortel IP Phone 8500 series from both companies who work together to
including the LG-Nortel IP Phone 8540, which position the products that emerge from the
integrates smoothly with Office partnership between Nortel and Microsoft.
Communications Server 2007 without the
need for software drivers. Similar to the The third pillar of the Innovative
Innovative Communications Alliance, the LG- Communications Alliance, the consulting
Nortel partnership with Microsoft includes practice, has been created from scratch
joint research and development, and within Nortel. Given its deep background in
cooperative marketing. telephony, and its large number of Microsoft-
certified engineers, Nortel Global Services is
Moving forward, the 2008 road map of the uniquely suited to help customers design,
Innovative Communications Alliance includes deploy, and evaluate unified communications
development of unified communications solutions to meet their business needs.
programs specifically for use in contact
centers; more features for IP-PBX systems;
expanded hosted unified communications
Benefits More-Reliable Connectivity
By combining their respective expertise in Cross-company coordination has also helped
applications and telephony, Microsoft and solve many branch office challenges faced by
Nortel make it easier for their customers to increasingly distributed enterprises. Because
join the convergence revolution that is it supports the Mediation Server role of Office
currently under way. Integrating a single Communications Server 2007, Nortel Secure
client, directory, and presence engine with Router 4134 can help companies optimize
telephony systems creates a sound bandwidth usage without negative effects on
foundation for unified communications by the user experience. Nortel is working with
simplifying management, reducing costs, and Microsoft to extend this device in the future
ensuring reliability. From design to to enable branch offices to continue
deployment and beyond, the Innovative collaborating even if the network connection
Communications Alliance helps companies between them goes down.
deploy solutions faster and less expensively,
while enabling them to connect with The Nortel Networking Application Server
“Other networking customers and expedite decision making. uses the session directory in the Windows
vendors may be Server® 2003 operating system to improve
Tighter Integration business efficiencies by adding a health
independently working An important element of the Microsoft and check within the switch. This ensures that the
on some of the same Nortel roadmap is the tightly integrated client workstation is always connected to the
nature of its unified communications correct server.
capabilities, but our solution. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a
solution is far more key component that makes this possible. SIP Lower Cost of Ownership
is a signaling protocol for creating, modifying, The integrated solutions from Nortel and
complementary and less and terminating communications sessions Microsoft also help contribute to a lower total
complex than one that with one or more participants. “By using SIP cost of ownership (TCO), because they require
natively, we eliminate the need for customers deployment of fewer components.
customers would have to have a gateway in the middle,” says Gallot.
to integrate “Other networking vendors may be In addition to choosing from a wide array of IP
independently working on some of the same phones, customers can continue to use
themselves.” capabilities, but our solution is far more legacy handsets: they aren’t required to “rip
Hayete Gallot, Alliance Director, Nortel complementary and less complex than one and replace” their phone equipment to take
that customers would have to integrate advantage of the new solution. Customers
themselves.” are able to migrate to IP telephony at their
own pace.
Because of this initial design work, the
products are available for deployment sooner The software-based integration with the
and work better once they’re installed. “When Nortel IP telephony environment means that
Microsoft tests integration with Office customers do not have to purchase a
Communications Server 2007, 80 percent of separate gateway to handle integration, and
the testing is done with Nortel equipment,” they can take advantage of capabilities that
says Gallot. “That is the reason we feel gateways don’t offer. Because Nortel
confident we will be the first and best to solutions use data stored within the Active
deliver an integrated solution.” Directory® service, customers have a single
directory to maintain. By contrast, other
solutions may have parallel directories, a
situation which is harder to manage. “With
the integration we are providing, companies
get more functionality and less complexity
when they do administration and
maintenance on the system. That means
more simplicity for end users and reduced
operational cost for IT,” says Gallot.
Increased Capabilities
Customers have grown accustomed to a
variety of capabilities from their PBX systems
over the years. The long-standing experience
that Nortel has with these telephony systems
gives it the ability to provide new functionality
to customers, and these capabilities can be
extended to the Microsoft environment. For
example, customers can incorporate custom
calling and forwarding plans into Office
Communications Server 2007, so that calls
to employees in one department can be
automatically routed to the next available
colleague if the first person is unavailable.
Nortel is also integrating the capability for
customers to dial their phones using their
existing dial plans instead of migrating to a
new one.
Another example of increased capabilities
within new unified communications products
is the Nortel Multimedia Conferencing
solution, an on-site audio and video solution
that provides subscribers with access to an
“always on” conferencing resource with no
reservations required. Nortel offers users the
ability to dial-in to audio and video
conferences from anywhere and from any
device.
A Roadmap for Improved Business
Performance
The joint Nortel and Microsoft roadmap offers
ongoing value to enterprise customers
through a common vision, tight product
integration, and deep services expertise. As a
result, customers will benefit from seamless
communications, which drives improved
business performance.
For More Information Unified Communications
For more information about Microsoft Unified communications bridge the gap
products and services, call the Microsoft between telephony and computing to deliver
Sales Information Center at (800) 426- real-time messaging, voice, and conferencing
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft to the desktop environment. For more
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- information, go to:
2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of- www.microsoft.com/uc
hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
For more information about Nortel
products and services, call (905) 863-
7000 or visit the Web site at:
www.nortel.com
Software and Services Hardware
Microsoft Office Nortel Communication Server 1000 IP PBX
− Microsoft Office Communications Nortel Communication Server 2100 IP PBX
Server 2007 Nortel Secure Router 4134
− Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 LG Nortel IP Phone 8540
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio LG-Nortel USB Phone 8501
− Windows Server 2003
Technologies
− Active Directory
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published October 2007
