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.