Nortel, IBM join on call center and VoIP systems

By James Cope

October 24, 2001 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - Nortel Networks Corp. and IBM today announced that they would join forces to integrate IBM's Web applications and database products with Nortel's call center and voice over IP telephone technologies.

Eric Ross, president of Brampton, Ontario-based Nortel's enterprise solutions division, said in an interview this morning that his company would move from its own proprietary computing systems to IBM's WebSphere platform and DB2 database to power its call center applications and voice over IP telephones.

IBM, in turn, will resell Nortel's products to its customers and use them to offer voice over IP and call centers as services through IBM Global Services.

No doubt, Nortel gets more out of this deal than IBM, said Paul Strauss, research manager at IDC in Framingham, Mass.

Nortel has been whacked by the massive downturn in the telecommunications sector and recently reported a $3.5 billion loss for the third quarter. The company said it plans to continue to trim jobs (see story). Nortel now has 45,000 employees, down from 92,000 in January.

Nortel's Eric Ross

"IBM is bringing its enormous power to sell things to Nortel," Strauss said. In particular, he added, it gives Nortel significant clout against Avaya Inc. in Basking Ridge, N.J., for call centers and IP-based telephone systems for enterprises, and could help Nortel in the service provider area, where it competes with Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies Inc.

Ross said that by using standard software and server platforms from IBM, the move would "allow Nortel to focus on end-user applications instead of [computing] platforms." That, he said, "will let me get to market quicker."

IBM remains a major reseller of network routers and switches from Cisco Systems Inc., Strauss said. And while Nortel's new relationship with IBM is specifically related to telephony matters and won't necessarily put Nortel's own enterprise routers and switches at the top of IBM's data networking pick list, Strauss described the deal with IBM as a "significant break" for Nortel, albeit one that Cisco probably won't like.

Related stories:

Nortel's Clarify users in limbo, Oct. 15, 2001

Sprint strikes 3G wireless deals with Lucent, Nortel, June 27, 2001

Nortel focused on Ethernet over optical fiber and voice over IP, May 10, 2001

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