Lippis Report Issue 85: ICA Update: Are Nortel and Microsoft Delivering?
In Lippis Report Issue 85 I check in with the folks at Nortel to see what progress has been made with their Microsoft relationship (ICA), since it´s been nearly a year to the date that ICA was announced. I look back at the July ´06 announcement and my analysis of it in Lippis Report Issue 65: Nortel Marries Up to see if they are delivering.
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The short analysis is that there has been lots of talk and demos, but not much in the form of product has materialized in the year since the announcement. The hopes of ICA cling to the introduction of Microsoft´s Office Communicator 2007, the not-yet delivered client software that will work with and communicate to Communications Server 2007, when it ships.
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According to Nortel, ICA has delivered on the following:
1) 70 joint road shows across the globe and joint Voicecon and Interop marketing
2) Publicly announced customers for their Converged Office solution, which includes the Nortel CS1000 call control device, integrated with Microsoft´s Live Communications Server. This solution has been available for over 1 year with customers such as Shell, BT, Indiana University on CS 2100, International SOS, Fred Weber, CSLA, Thomas College, Jyske Bank, Wannon Water, Mirvac, Austock Securities, et al.
3) Two regional collaboration centers were opened and are jointly staffed
4) Eleven Nortel Integration Services launched
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On January 17th, Microsoft and Nortel made a set of announcements to press, analysts and customers. Here is an update to that roadmap:
1. In customer trial: Microsoft´s Exchange Unified Messaging and Nortel CS 1000 integration.
2. A public demonstration: The Nortel CS 1000 integrated with Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007. The University of Indiana announced a beta trial of the CS 2100 integrated with OCS 2007
3. An announcement: Nortel CS 2000 with Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration. This includes Microsoft exchange, LCS and SharePoint.
4. A public demonstration: Nortel´s Multimedia Conferencing with Microsoft´s Live Communications Server 2005
5. Shipping: The UC Integrated Branch product announced in NY in Jan ´07 was launched with a new name: The Secure Router 4134 at Spring Interop 2007. Future capabilities will include Microsoft Mediation Server, which is the technology that provides public switched telephone network (PSTN) and private branch exchange (PBX) interoperability for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007
6. Work in progress: UC-enabled Contact Center integration with OCS 2007. Estimated availability is 2008
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ICA Analysis:
After nearly a year ICA has little to show for its efforts. Nearly every IP telephony provider is working with Microsoft on OC and OCS while most have already integrated into LCS. It´s not clear what advantage Nortel is getting from their relationship with Microsoft. ICA offers more questions than answers for Nortel. But for Microsoft this is a great deal.
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For example, during this past Interop, Microsoft announced that a dozen IP telephony and gateway providers are working with Microsoft’s interoperability specifications for the OCS 2007 Unified Communications conferencing and messaging server. These companies include Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Mitel Networks, NEC, Nortel Networks, Siemens Enterprise Communications, AudioCodes, Dialogic and Quintum Technologies. According to Anthony Bawcutt, Director of Business Development in Microsoft’s Unified Communications Group, the above vendors committed to deliver interoperability upgrades by early 2008, although Microsoft believes some will have their interoperability upgrades available in the fourth quarter of this year.
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So the question is what does Nortel get from ICA that others are not? It is not clear. What is clear is that Microsoft will deliver OC and OCS with a large UC ecosystem, which will result in Microsoft being the preferred desktop UC vendor. But how does Nortel take advantage of this? Microsoft also seems well on its way to commoditizing end-points and absorbing dominate telephony features such as call set-up and tear down, call transfer and click-conference into OCS What does this leave Nortel with? What will happen to Nortel´s Communication Server, Multimedia Conferencing and CallPilot Unified Messaging product lines? It´s odd to have such questions after a year in a business relationship.
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The real question is will ICA survive the summer? With little to show customers other than PowerPoint slides, demos and future promises, will Nortel customers lose patience and question both their investments with Nortel and the advice from Jeff Raikes, President of Microsoft´s Business Division, to hold off IP telephony spending until they are ready? To gain credibility and show that it made the right decision to enter into ICA, Nortel needs tangible proof points and a roadmap for its CS, CallPilot and Multimedia conferencing product lines. If neither is delivered by the end of the summer, customer patience may shift to defection.
Tom Bontin said:
June 29th, 2007 at 9:59 am
I think this gives an early indication of Nortel’s intent to concentrate on their core business of Service Provider. At VoiceCon this year Mike Z said, during his key speech, that he would discuss the ICA alliance- then spoke mostly about WiMax!
(Jeff Raikes spoke about all their partners in UC-Avaya, Cisco and others he eventually mentioned Nortel!)
When Mike Z came into the company he said he would consider pulling out of markets where they did not have 20% market share- seems like this is well on the way to becoming true- the lack of development with Microsoft perhaps coming about through all the lay-offs, management turmoil and accounting issues.
Didn’t want to see this happen to a bellwether traditional voice company that I have shares in :-(
rborrajo said:
June 30th, 2007 at 5:13 am
Nice article, but neither complete not accurate enough.
As I understand it, ICA is not a closed UC-ecosystem at all, so do not expect Nortel beeing the only Communications Server on the market to do interesting things with OCS2007.
Nortel and Microsoft are jointly developing an initiative for SIP devices (telephones, gateways, applications,…) to be able the get the most for telephony when the OCS2007 is deployed in the network.
So the most important advantage I see for Nortel, is that they will be the very first to be ready in technology, support, sales and services for customers willing to have UC based on Microsoft solutions.
With ICA, Nortel has the chance to “see” further and deeper than other IPPBX manufactures when integrating (not just interoperating) with Microsoft OCS2007. This is a clear advantage, don’t you agree?
It is a mistake trying to position Nortel as THE ONLY one to have a valid telephony solution for Microsoft OCS2007. This is not the point, the point is (I insist) to be the first and best in the wide range of products and services needed by customers willing to have UC solution based on Microsoft.
In the way to do that, it is clear that some Nortel products will need to adapt. Call Pilot for Unified Messaging is a clear example when the customer insists on having Exchange UM, even though it is a first generation UM solution. But do not get wrong, the same will happen with the UM solutions from Cisco, Alcatel and AVAYA, to name a few. Beeing the first to recognize this completely, will give Nortel a nice advantage in the Microsoft-oriented UM market. It is a kind of “Darwinian” adaptation to the real world to be able to survive.
And let me add a final comment:
When Michael Faraday (the father of “practical” electromagnetism) made a demonstration of an electrical current beeing generated by a magnet moving back and forth inside a copper loop, someone asked him: “Excuse me sir, and what is it for?” Michael Faraday answered “Tell me gentleman, and what is a baby useful for?”
Do not expect a baby to start working too early and get the annual salary of an adult high level executive. ICA is a medium-long term initiative for at least 4 years. It is just a 1 year old “baby” and there are 3 years more to grow and demonstrate what it is able to achieve. Be patience, wait and see ;-)
Nick Lippis said:
July 9th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Please see below.
Nice article, but neither complete not accurate enough.
Nick: Where are we inaccurate?
As I understand it, ICA is not a closed UC-ecosystem at all, so do not expect Nortel beeing the only Communications Server on the market to do interesting things with OCS2007.
Nortel and Microsoft are jointly developing an initiative for SIP devices (telephones, gateways, applications,?¢‚Ǩ¬¶) to be able the get the most for telephony when the OCS2007 is deployed in the network.
So the most important advantage I see for Nortel, is that they will be the very first to be ready in technology, support, sales and services for customers willing to have UC based on Microsoft solutions.
Nick: This is not what I see, it looks like there will be a broad range of companies ready to provide a Microsoft based UC solution when OCS ships.
With ICA, Nortel has the chance to ?¢‚Ǩ?ìsee?¢‚Ǩ¬ù further and deeper than other IPPBX manufactures when integrating (not just interoperating) with Microsoft OCS2007. This is a clear advantage, don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t you agree?
Nick: The question is, is there enough value for Nortel to differentiate its offerings with this ?¢‚Ǩ?ìseeing further and deeper?¢‚Ǩ¬ù. What can Nortel see that others cannot and do customers care?
It is a mistake trying to position Nortel as THE ONLY one to have a valid telephony solution for Microsoft OCS2007. This is not the point, the point is (I insist) to be the first and best in the wide range of products and services needed by customers willing to have UC solution based on Microsoft.
Nick: We never said that Nortel is the only, we say that Nortel is just another telephony provider that will find it hard to differentiate in the Microsoft UC ecosystem.
In the way to do that, it is clear that some Nortel products will need to adapt. Call Pilot for Unified Messaging is a clear example when the customer insists on having Exchange UM, even though it is a first generation UM solution. But do not get wrong, the same will happen with the UM solutions from Cisco, Alcatel and AVAYA, to name a few. Beeing the first to recognize this completely, will give Nortel a nice advantage in the Microsoft-oriented UM market. It is a kind of ?¢‚Ǩ?ìDarwinian?¢‚Ǩ¬ù adaptation to the real world to be able to survive.
Nick: Agree but Nortel needs to provide clear product direction to its customers as it migrates to the OCS platform.
And let me add a final comment:
When Michael Faraday (the father of ?¢‚Ǩ?ìpractical?¢‚Ǩ¬ù electromagnetism) made a demonstration of an electrical current beeing generated by a magnet moving back and forth inside a copper loop, someone asked him: ?¢‚Ǩ?ìExcuse me sir, and what is it for??¢‚Ǩ¬ù Michael Faraday answered ?¢‚Ǩ?ìTell me gentleman, and what is a baby useful for??¢‚Ǩ¬ù
Do not expect a baby to start working too early and get the annual salary of an adult high level executive. ICA is a medium-long term initiative for at least 4 years. It is just a 1 year old ?¢‚Ǩ?ìbaby?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and there are 3 years more to grow and demonstrate what it is able to achieve. Be patience, wait and see ;-)
Nick: Nortel does not have the luxury of asking customers to wait a few years, the market is too competitive and my fear for Nortel is that customers will loose patience and start to defect.
gilf said:
December 13th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Very nice, Keep posting!
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