Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
The Nortel Bankruptcy: Who Benefits?
Best Answer
- Recommended by:
- Trevor Usken,
- Benjamin Anderson
Great analysis Marcus. I think a strong case can be made for the Asterisk market, especially in the SMB market. Nortel's Meridian and Norstar systems have been staples within the SMB market so it is definitely logical to conclude that companies like fonality, digium, etc will take some of that old nortel business, especially considering the large amount of nortel systems that are now "end of life" and will be needing a replacement sooner rather than later.
Scott, I both agree and disagree with your statement. The customer will win because Nortel's failure will provide a gateway for young innovative companies to make a name for themselves and provide new products, as well as put pressure on big players to keep up on the technological end.
Where I disagree is this:
Nortel's equipment was really good in general. I have talked to hundreds of customers who have used and love Nortel equipment. These customers are also incredibly loyal to Nortel. Since Nortel was the most prevalent telecom equipment provider in North America, many of those customers will be thrown into a situation that might cost them, and that certainly does not benefit them. Anyway, thank you both for your answers.
- Recommended by:
- Benjamin Anderson
Having sold Avaya, Microsoft and Cisco, I think it's funny to hear people hold hosted services on such a pedestal. I've watched countless clients throw away perfectly fine PBX systems because they were promised a solution that will change the way they do business. Ironically enough, those are the clients that I like the most, because 3 months later they're pounding on my door begging me to help them. People take IT for granted and can't say no to a sales person promising them a 75% reduction in monthly costs. They may save $500/mo in immediate cost, but when that hosted service goes down or the quality of service falls below the SLA, they lose business . . . period! So much for that monthly savings. It happens more often than the providers are telling you. My recommendation is to be very careful, do your due diligence and ask a lot of questions. If I were a betting man, I would say that Cisco and Microsoft will be the winners in the enterprise space and Shoretel will win the SMB.
If you're a company that appreciates industry analystics, have a look at Gartner, Nemertes and Tolly. They are the ones that try to take the most unbiased approach at all technologies and give you the good and the bad.
I think the customers benefit as there where far better solutions out there then Nortel as they where obviously losing the battle out in the field. Avaya who we partner with has always offered more flexibility and better end user solutions on a customized platform. Cisco also has much better products and solutions than Nortel. Every company I know of has complained about Nortel or has not known that they where missing out on features because they where not offered.
I vote for the customer!
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
Sam, really interesting question. This market has changed a lot this year and it's not just the Nortel restructuring. Here are some of the big changes that I've seen:
1. Certainly the Nortel restructuring tops the list in terms of press. It's a shame really, particularly given the firm's storied history. There were some very strong people at the company even down to the wire and rumor has it that they are shaking things up at Avaya.
2. Which brings me to my second observation: Avaya isn't in great shape either. They didn't have to service billions of dollars in debt like Nortel and have avoided a major catastrophe, but the Avaya business has seen much, much better days. I thin that's true for most of the major phone system vendors. Cisco continues to show strength but who knows if that is core telephony strength or product/pricing mixing that allows them to goose the numbers just like IBM used to do with their HW/SW combo deals back in the 90s when their software was still worth something.
3. Asterisk - open source is disrupting this market, just as it is many other markets. We haven't seen a real breakout move from any of the vendors in this space (Digium and Fonality being the biggies in this space). To me, this is the area to watch. There is a RedHat in the making in here and it's a mystery to me why the Digiums of the world have not gotten bigger, faster.
So, in the long run, it will be an open source player that will win.
Marcus