If you have been thinking about using the System i as an IP telephony (IPT) platform, IBM and Nortel have just given you something new to consider. Last Tuesday, the two companies announced their plans to offer a complete IPT solution on the System i. The new offering gives System i customers a second IPT option to consider besides the 3COM IP Telephony Suite that already runs on the server.
At this moment, the Nortel-IBM System i Unified Communications solution is still a product in planning that is being tested in the labs of both companies. When it becomes available in the fourth quarter of this year, however, the offering should be similar in its breadth of functionality to 3COM's product. This means that it will run entirely on the System i and include software that lets users access their voice, fax, and email messages via a single in-box. Like the 3COM solution, Nortel's offering will also run in a Linux partition on the server.
In addition, Nortel's software should support a variety of Voice over IP (VOIP) phones as well as multiple messaging clients. One thing that Nortel is pledging to deliver in its offering is IPT capabilities for Lotus Sametime. This will enable Sametime users to "click to call" Nortel VOIP phone users and include them in voice and Web conferences. These capabilities are being developed on Sametime 7.5.1, so users will probably need to be at this release level to use the new functionality.
Nortel also expects that its software will support multiple email clients, including Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook. This should not be a problem for the company, as it has plenty of experience developing IPT software for both clients. Last year, Nortel formed a strategic alliance with Microsoft to help the software giant integrate IPT into its Office System. This puts Nortel in an ideal position to support unified communications on Outlook. As for Lotus Notes, Nortel announced a Multimedia Client for Notes at Lotusphere 2007 earlier this year. While Nortel has not said that its System i software will be compatible with this client, it would be a logical way for the company to support Notes in the new offering.
According to a press release from Nortel and IBM, business partners of both vendors will be able to resell the System i packaged with the new IPT solution. That could help to promote the offering, as Nortel has one of the largest partner networks of any telecommunications provider. It could also make the System i more attractive to Nortel customers that have never used the server. According to Chip McClelland, Product Marketing Offerings Manager for the System i, Nortel has one of the largest installed bases of private branch exchange (PBX) customers, with around one and half million accounts worldwide. If even a tiny fraction of those accounts were to deploy the new solution, it would boost System i sales by a considerable margin.
A Matter of Positioning
While the Nortel-IBM solution could boost sales of the System i over the long run, it may cause a slowdown in IPT sales over the short term. That could happen if customers that were planning to deploy the 3COM IP Telephony Suite put a hold on their plans to evaluate what Nortel has to offer. As such, it will be important for IBM and its IPT partners to do a good job of positioning the two solutions so that prospects can quickly determine which offering is best for them.
At this point, Nortel is not ready to provide enough information about its new offering to position it clearly versus 3COM. However, one can do some general positioning by comparing the 3COM solution to Nortel's current offerings on other servers. Such a comparison reveals that the two vendors' products are frequently designed for different audiences. For instance, the 3COM IP Telephony Suite is built on the same code base that the vendor uses for carrier-class applications in large enterprises. This makes it highly scalable, which is one reason why IBM offers 3COM-based packages for up to 1,000 users. By contrast, Nortel designs most of its IPT offerings for small and medium-sized businesses. As such, it usually puts simplicity ahead of scalability as a design point.
With these thoughts in mind, here are some simple guidelines that you can use to weigh your IPT options. If you are a smaller company that does not have significant growth plans or if you already use Nortel gear, it may be worth your while to wait and see what Nortel has to offer you at the end of this year. If you are a rapidly growing business or larger enterprise or if it is important for you to deploy IPT this year, the 3COM solution will probably be your best bet.
Of course, these considerations are only starting points in the evaluation process. As more information emerges about the Nortel-IBM System i Unified Communications solution, there will be many more variables to consider. Fortunately, sources within IBM are saying that more details about the new offering will be provided before it is officially announced. This means that we could have a much clearer picture of what Nortel's package contains by the end of this summer. If IPT is on your company's radar screen, be sure to keep an eye on this space.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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