Opinions and Comments on the Avaya Nortel merger

The merging of Nortel's Enterprise division into Avaya's global organization is extremely positive for customers of both companies; bringing the best that each has to offer to the Canadian marketplace. 

Avaya and Nortel have been developing world class voice communications solutions from the days of Alexander Graham Bell (click header : Avaya-Nortel History), each having gained market leadership positions within specific key markets, such as small business systems for Nortel, and Call Centers for Avaya. Avaya has been a key supplier to Fortune 500 companies, from Wall Street to Main Street and everywhere in between. It has also been selected as the key communications provider for the White House, the Pentagon and Air Force One.

The combination of two voice-technology leaders in the enterprise communications market is positive news for customers. Both companies have a strong philosophy of supporting system migration and upgrades, thereby protecting customer investments in their respective technologies. Given this philosophy, one expects that the newly merged entity will look hard at the installed base and create migration plans that will facilitate the integration of new technologies across both installed bases, thereby extending the significant investments made by customers.

As expected, competitors are predicting the end of the world for Nortel customers, trying to create confusion and doubt in the minds of businesses considering the purchase of Avaya-Nortel technologies. The reality is that these two companies have world-class solutions and together they will be more powerful than apart.

Integrating their R&D expertise into a consolidated product line while facilitating the migration of both customer bases is what one would expect from Avaya. In fact, this thinking lines up very nicely with the Avaya Aura solution introduced in the Spring of 2009.  The architectural basis of Aura, is to provide a centralized server that will communicate not just with Avaya products, but also across the wide range of PBX manufacturers from around the world such as: Cisco, Mitel, etc.

It is expected that the interconnectivity of Avaya and Nortel systems will grow even stronger, as Avaya Aura developers will have full access to system code to further strengthen the functional linkages between the respective technologies.

Nortel customers : What does this mean for customers of Nortel systems?

Nortel product lines will continue to be supported for the next 12-18 months. Within that timeframe, Avaya will provide detailed roadmaps for each of the Nortel product lines so that all customers have a clear understanding of what will happen to their preferred product, its go-forward evolution and the extent of Avaya’s commitment to long term support, the eventual de-standardization and product migration strategies.

It should be noted that both Avaya and Nortel share the same commitment to open standards and reject the proprietary architecture approach long take by other PBX providers.  Avaya Aura is compatible with Nortel’s architecture (integration provided by SIP and QSIG) which further ensures that customers are positioned for smooth evolution no matter what technologies are held within their global multi-vendor environment(s).

Additionally, Avaya has long delivered exceptional services and has been recognized for this capability – the most recent acknowledgement coming from JD Power in 2009.

On a going forward basis, both Nortel and Avaya customers can expect the same high-quality services and maintenance with minimal service disruption. The joint market vertical expertise from both organizations will also ensure that the vertical specific solutions for Finance/Insurance, Healthcare/Hospitality, Manufacturing, Retail and the CC Outsourcing Industries (amongst others) will remain the industry's gold standard.

Finally, the extensive research and development resources of the two companies will help the combined company bring better products to market more quickly and even more cost-effectively.

Avaya customers : How will this affect my technology investments?

For Avaya Customers, it is expected that all product lines will continue to evolve and be enhanced with the latest and greatest communications technologies so as to provide customers with the best possible solutions ahead of all other voice-communications providers.  Avaya has always prided itself on extending the customer’s technology investment. The industry expects that this core business tenet will remain.

At the same time that Avaya announces the Nortel product roadmaps, it is expected that a significant portion of this information will be inclusive of the Avaya product line.

Nortel's strength in Canada runs deep in the healthcare/hospitality, retail, manufacturing and government segments where Avaya has been lacking. This acquisition will provide Avaya-Nortel customers with the best of both worlds, deep knowledge of the needs and expectation of each vertical along with the resources to further develop them.   

Are there any advantages that come from this acquisition?

As with any acquisition, the justification is built upon the expected cost savings, process optimizations, technology development synergies and technology support, installation and maintenance coverage advantages.

Standard customer advantages that accompany industry consolidation include: increased professional and managed services expertise; the ability to effectively and consistently deliver services in areas that Avaya did not previously have representation; the assured financial stability that a consolidated entity provides;  along with unmatched breadth and depth of voice specific intellectual property (IP).  

In summary, this effectively ensures that a combined Avaya-Nortel is positioned light years ahead of Cisco, Mitel or any other competitor.

For customers operating in Canada and the USA: What about policies for product and license redeployment across country borders?

With a significant number of US and Canadian businesses having cross-border operations, it is expected that Avaya will quickly address the underlying policies governing cross border product migration, license sharing and re-allocation. These policies will help to ensure that all customers are uniformly and effectively provided with some protection of the investments they have made in either Nortel or Avaya technology.

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