Nortel-Microsoft ICA Rolls Out Transformational Solutions

Contrary to naysayers, the Nortel-Microsoft strategic alliance under ICA is alive and well.

This week's announcement, not only included two new customers (Movares and SQLSoft+), but also described five new offers.

#1- SIP Contact Center 7.0 + Microsoft Office Communications Server: This is a very significant development in the CC application space.
#2- Web Services: This is really part of Nortel's Communications Integration play, which includes ACE.
#3 and #4- Enterprise Lighthouse and Enterprise Mini Lighthouse: professional service offers for customers interested in deploying OCS Voice and Conferencing and Microsoft Exchange Voicemail.
#5- UC Conferencing: This is an enhancement to Nortel's current solution to work with OCS R2.

But the big news is that the Nortel-Microsoft relationship has gone from just being about integration (only the last of the five areas is a pure integartion play) and has really started to focus on the transformational software opportunities of UC.

Whoever buys Nortel Enterprise should see significant value in these developments.