most.
Nortel and Microsoft say they intend to transition traditional business phone systems into software, based on Microsoft's
unified communications platform along with Nortel software products that offer advanced telephony functionality. The software-centric approach aims to offer an easy transition path for businesses to reduce TCO (total cost of ownership) and protect both current and future investments. Microsoft also expects the approach to stimulate the creation of new, innovative applications.
"This is a gutsy play for Nortel," noted CEO Mike Zafirovski pictured above with Microsoft CEP Steve Ballmer, "accelerating the move of our voice technology into software and working with the world's software leader as part of our broader business strategy to transform the company into a software and services leader."
Microsoft revealed its
unified communications strategy last month, saying that it is intended to seamlessly interconnect email, instant messaging, and cellular and VoIP (voice-over-IP) telephony, along with audio-, video-, and web-conferencing. The strategy takes advantage of new features in Exchange Server combined with elements of Office 2007, according to the company.
At the time, LG-Nortel, a joint venture of LG Electronics and Nortel, announced plans to develop and market a business-enabled IP desktop phone that supports the unified communications platform. The new phone will work with Office Communications Server 2007 presence-awareness, IP call management features and enhanced instant messaging capabilities. Earlier this year, LG-Nortel signed an
MoU (memorandum of understanding) with Microsoft for a "broad range collaboration in VoIP," including the joint development and marketing of Windows CE based IP terminals and the new
Windows CE 6 videophone.
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