30 Minute Interview

“You do not have to rip and replace to be able to use UC”

Philip Goldie, Nortel Microsoft ICA Leader Asia talks to Varun Aggarwal about unified communications, Nortel’s alliance with Microsoft for the same and how the concept is catching on in India.

Philip Goldie

What’s Nortel’s take on Unified Communications?

Unified communications brings together several communication systems or models such as conferencing, instant messaging, traditional and next-generation private branch exchanges (PBX), and paging; sending and receiving messages of mixed media types such as video, sound clips, and pictures. One of the examples could be the ability to reroute the incoming calls on a PBX to a remote computer when you are not in office or to even receive missed call alerts. Thus, you can remain connected anywhere, anytime.

When did you form an alliance with Microsoft for Unified Communications Solutions?

The alliance with Microsoft was formed in July 2006 to integrate Nortel’s PBX with Microsoft’s Live Communications Server. The alliance is focused on three key areas, namely Research & Development, funding and putting marketing strategies in place and the third part is services.

Where do you see the Indian UC market vis-à-vis the APAC market?

The most important markets in the APAC region for us are Australia, New Zealand and India. Though the other two markets are already mature, the Indian market has a vast scope for new and emerging technologies. Shell and International SOS, which also have offices in India, have deployed Unified Communications Solutions from Microsoft-Nortel. International SOS, a healthcare provider uses this solution for speeding up evacuation operations during emergency situations. A number of other Indian companies are looking forward for pilot projects instead of a full deployment.

What are your plans for India?

We are focused on establishing a relationship with Microsoft and also focusing on only limited accounts as for now. We are also trying to scale up our partners in India.

Sukhvinder Ahuja, Microsoft Business Leader India, Nortel: We are planning a number of road shows in the month of May and June this year to educate people how a simple PBX can be converted into Unified Communications platform, without replacing the existing infrastructure. We are trying to educate customers about the benefits of Unified Communications and how this technology can ease their daily operations.

What are the verticals that you are targeting?

We are targeting enterprise customers from various verticals, especially where there are a lot of knowledge workers. Companies which are in Research and Development, financial institutions, consultancies are our prime focus as they should be the fastest adopters of the technology. The sales cycle should take at least six to nine months and one could expect more products in UC from Microsoft and Nortel in 2007.

How can UC benefit the users of PBX who have already invested huge amounts in the existing systems?

You do not have to rip and replace an existing system to be able to use UC from Microsoft-Nortel. The solution from the alliance helps the customer take full advantage of the existing investments by just adding components over it instead of replacing the legacy systems.