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Microsoft Partners Nortel on Unified Communications

Microsoft has signed a four-year alliance agreement with Nortel Networks to jointly develop and market products that will merge traditional business phone systems into software that integrates with Nortel Internet telephony software.

Nortel said that it expected more than USD 1 billion in additional revenue from the four-year pact, which calls for the companies to work together on research and development and be partners on sales and marketing.

Nortel and Microsoft will transition traditional business phone systems into software, with a Microsoft unified communications software platform and Nortel software products to provide further advanced telephony functionality, the companies said.

Mike Zafirovski, president and CEO of Nortel, said "By combining our unique strengths, Microsoft and Nortel will accelerate the delivery of unified communications — delivering to our customers a higher-quality user experience, with greater reliability and lower total cost of ownership."

Microsoft and Nortel said that under the deal, which can be extended, they will license some of each other’s intellectual property.

The two companies venture on Internet phone hardware-software integration has already been explored by Cisco Systems.


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