Jason Delp, president of the Pittsburgh-Western Allegheny Meridian Users Group, a small user group aligned with INNUA, said a Microsoft-Nortel alliance "would be a good thing for IT shops." Having them work together could make IT operations more efficient and require less integration of various software tools, Delp said. IT shops are currently burdened by having to block third-party communications, such as instant messaging or consumer-grade voice-over-IP services, something a unified architecture might help, he said.

Delp is on the IT staff at Coventry Health Care Inc. in Cranberry Township, Pa., where Windows, Microsoft Communicator and a Nortel network are installed. "There's always the possibility some Nortel users who are Microsoft haters won't like this alliance, but you have to face it that from the corporate perspective, the trend is toward Microsoft applications," Delp said.

He said he is not convinced that working with Microsoft will help Nortel that much. "After all its problems, Nortel is still in business and still around, but who knows for how long," Delp said. "They're on their way back, but they still have an uphill battle.

"Working with Microsoft could go either way for Nortel," he said. "It could be the greatest thing to come along for Nortel or could fail miserably. Obviously, both companies thought it was a strong move."

Another INNUA chapter president, Andy Rebar of the Heart of America chapter in Kansas City, Mo., said the alliance is "generally a good thing because of the strong market Microsoft has. [But] I wouldn't say that I would drink the Microsoft Kool-Aid just because we have Nortel already. We'd have to look at the benefits and weigh the ins and outs."