Avaya launches post-Nortel roadmap

Avaya’s post-Nortel acquisition product roadmap should provide clarity to Australian customers of both companies according to ANZ managing director, Rob Wells.

“There are two things we are trying to achieve with this roadmap: One, that Avaya is the leader in delivering real time business communications environments… the other is that we aren’t forcing pre-existing Nortel customers to have to migrate or upgrade,” he told Computerworld.

Wells claimed the company’s investment in its Avaya Aura platform would allow customers of both Avaya and Nortel to gain access to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based services and applications without the need to “rip and replace” existing investments communications.

“Even today with an existing Nortel CM environment you can plug in to the Avaya Aura platform and immediately give the customer communication management benefits … without the need to swap out the existing Nortel equipment,” he said.

On the issue of support for Nortel’s existing portfolio, Wells said it was difficult to give an exact timeframe for how long Avaya would continue to support existing Nortel deployments.

“There is a large portfolio of products which are at various stages of their end-life… but there is clearly a commitment to not only support the Nortel products but also offer the enhancements that were previously committed to by Nortel for 2010 release,” he said.

Despite the new roadmap, Avaya is also unlikely to offer incentives or discounts to encourage existing Nortel shops to convert to the new post-Nortel product range, Wells said.

“Because of the evolutionary aspects of the roadmap — SIP-based customers can take advantage of the technology from whatever background they come from — there is less focus on using pricing mechanisms to force customers to take the approach,” he said.

“Rather, we’ll sit down with customers and look where they want to go with their business communications environment then building the most appropriate path.”

Wells would not give figures on Nortel and Avaya staff cuts locally, as a result of the acquisition, but said about 100 Nortel staff had been integrated into Avaya. For more detailed information on the roadmap, see Avaya’s webinar and Network World’s analysis.

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