Called IPT 1-2-3, the program is intended to simplify purchasing and stimulate adoption of IP telephony upgrades at large businesses in North America, Nortel officials said.
One analyst, Jay Lassman at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., said Nortel needed such a program to spur lagging IP telephony sales. "Nortel has given such attractive prices on [traditional circuit-switched gear] versus IPT that they've really lost ground in that IPT space as a result," Lassman said. "They've gained a reputation for literally not really having a focus on IP."
Current Voice over IP (VOIP) upgrades have been sold by vendors as a custom process, but Nortel's program relies on standard pre-configured packages of all the components needed for a new system, said Diane Schmidt, director of IP telephony marketing at Nortel. "Going from a legacy voice system to IP is relatively complex," Schmidt said. "There's quite a bit of engineering. Every vendor has had a customized approach, but customers needed it to be simpler. So now we're driving into standard pre-packaged configurations."
Migrations will be done at a customer's "own pace for as much as 30 percent less cost than current upgrades," Schmidt said.
Nortel said it would invest in sales and support software that could be used by hundreds of channel partners in helping customers find the right configuration, she said.
The process for picking a package will involve determining the number of users, choosing the applications needed and installing the hardware and software, she said. A package to convert a Meridian 1 Time Division Multiplexing switch (a traditional circuit-switched network design) would involve getting a new IP core processor, IP phones, a software release, a networking switch and related gear -- all packaged with one part number and one price, Schmidt said. Additional phones and prepackaged applications could be added onto the basic package.
She likened the choices to choosing a new car with standard options packages.
One six-year Nortel customer who has gradually added Nortel components to create an IP telephony system praised the idea behind the new IPT 1-2-3 program. "I've found with Nortel you don't have to do a forklift upgrade and completely turn over your network to a vendor to do voice over IP," said T.R. Bowlin, infrastructure manager for Power Engineers Inc. in Hailey, Idaho. "A lot of firms want to do what we did, which is do VOIP over time, and my understanding is that's how IP 1-2-3 will work."
Power Engineers, a diversified engineering firm, has about 300 Nortel IP phones, another 400 circuit-switched phones and related IP switching gear at 18 domestic and three foreign offices. Over six years, he estimated he has spend US$1.3 million on Nortel communications products. About half of that amount has already been recouped due to IP telephony. Savings have been realized on toll calls to England and other locales that are now conducted over VOIP, and on conference calls, Bowlin said. Conference calls used to be conducted through an AT&T service that cost up to $14,000 a month, a cost eliminated with a $140,000 investment in a Nortel MCS 5100 server, he said.
"I think IP telephony has increased by 10-fold our ability to communicate when you consider how one of our engineers in Iraq might make a call on a PC client," he said. He expects his total Nortel investment to be paid off in two to three years.
Lassman said the IPT 1-2-3 program is unproven, and relies on a shift in the fundamental sales approach of hundreds of Nortel channel dealers. "Execution is key," he said.
He also questioned whether Nortel would "literally deliver plug-and-play IP telephony, including software," and wondered whether Nortel might be using the initiative to move older hardware or would provide newer-model gear in the pre-packaged configurations. "Where we need clarity is [with] what ... IPT 1-2-3 [is] going to look like from a physical standpoint," Lassman said.