Nortel Networks Corp."s appointment this week of Mike Zafirovski as its next CEO surprised some of the company"s customers. But they said they view the move as a way for the company to continue to rebound after four years of turmoil that involved top executive firings and financial restatements.

"Re-establishing the [company"s] credibility will prove to be critical as Nortel now shifts its focus to capturing a large customer base," said Steve Ford, president of Nortel"s largest user group, the International Nortel Networks Users Association (INNUA) in Chicago. The group has more than 5,000 members.

Coming 19 months after Nortel board member Bill Owens took the helm to make reforms, Zafirovski"s appointment is slated to take effect Nov. 15.

"When Bill Owens spoke at INNUA"s annual conference last summer, he told the INNUA membership that Nortel will be here for us in the long term," said Ford, a coordinator of electronic services for Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., and a Nortel customer. "And we trust we will see that same dedication to customers from Mr. Zafirovski."

But just two days after the appointment was made, Zafirovski"s previous employer, Motorola Corp., filed a lawsuit in a bid to prevent him from working at Nortel for two years, saying he violated a noncompete clause. In reaction, INNUA Executive Director Victor Bohnert said he is confident the lawsuit would be resolved quickly and that Zafirovski would be installed.

Nortel issued a statement saying it plans to review the lawsuit and will discuss it with Motorola. Otherwise Motorola officials had no comment.

Zafirovski, 51, served as president and chief operating officer at Motorola from 2002 until this past January. He arrived at Motorola in 2000 after 25 years at General Electric Co., where he was president of three separate divisions.

Zafirovski told reporters he will emphasize ethics and integrity at Nortel while pushing to increase profits from the low single digits to 13 percent to 19 percent. At the same time, he said he will expand Nortel"s potential with enterprise customers, a comment that users cheered. An organizational realignment announced in September also will help strengthen the enterprise focus, Ford said.

Of 20 Nortel customers interviewed, most said they knew nothing about Zafirovski but are eager to see Nortel continue its path back to growth and stability.

"I was surprised that Owens was stepping down already," said Michael Hazdra, a telecommunications manager at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill. He urged the company to streamline the way it releases software patches.

But John Haltom, network director for Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, Tenn., said the move was "not really a surprise" since he had been told that Owens "was filling a gap and never really intended to stay for the long haul." It helps that Zafirovski is younger and able to "hang around for the long haul."

Haltom praised Nortel"s initiatives with security awareness products and IP convergence hardware, but he and other customers called on Zafirovski to market Nortel better. "They have such an innovative and flexible product set," he said.

In the wake of the firing of then-CEO Frank Dunn in 2004 and the restatement of earnings back to 2001, Nortel has been "chastised enough in my opinion," Haltom said. "I think they"re still a very financially viable company, and we"ll keep our investments moving in their direction."

That view isn"t shared by Philip St. Ores, IT director at TSI Inc., a maker of precision instruments in Shoreview, Minn. He said he evaluated Nortel"s voice over IP products three years ago but chose products from Cisco Systems Inc. instead.

"We were unimpressed with their products, market position and their lack of direction," St. Ores said. "If Nortel is to survive, they must bring to market better products more aggressively priced. I would not bet on Nortel."

Robert Whiteley, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., said Zafirovski assumes the helm at an important juncture for the company, which has moved from "decline and scandal" to "restructuring and now stabilization and, hopefully, growth."

Nortel "hasn"t maintained a strong focus, hasn"t marketed much and had a temporary modus operandi with Owens at the helm," Whiteley said.

Selling products to service providers will offer moderate growth potential for the company, he said, since the market is competitive. But selling to enterprise customers offers "high growth potential" since there is really only one player in that market -- Cisco, he said.

Enterprises are now beginning wholesale upgrades to data center and corporate networks, giving Nortel and Hewlett-Packard Co."s ProCurve the chance to be an "Avis" to Cisco"s "Hertz," Whiteley said. "Nortel should be able to bounce back.... But I"m not sure we"re going to see any huge growth numbers anytime soon."