Microsoft and Nortel plan unified communications alliance

Presence, messaging and voice

The companies described scenarios in which a worker could receive an office-number call on a laptop while travelling, launch a conference from an email message or see whether colleagues were available by phone or email. Microsoft presented communications as an important expansion beyond its traditional PC software markets.

Nortel expected the alliance to generate more than 1 billion US dollars in revenue from 2007 through 2009. An analyst quoted in the report saw potential but noted that the companies had released few specifics about individual technologies or how product plans would align. The commercial forecast and implementation details therefore remained uncertain at announcement.

Unified communications is a workflow proposition

The scenarios in the announcement connect email, calling, messaging, conferencing and presence across places and devices. The aim is not merely to put a phone function in software; it is to reduce the steps between knowing who is available and starting a conversation. That is a workflow proposition.

An alliance joins different responsibilities

Microsoft brought a software position and Nortel a telecommunications-equipment position, making coordination itself part of the promise. A broad alliance can be commercially significant without answering how products, support boundaries and upgrades will align for a buyer. The report notes the limited public detail at announcement.

Revenue projections are forecasts

Nortel’s expected revenue from 2007 to 2009 is a forward-looking management estimate. A sound reading keeps those two elements together: a large stated opportunity and incomplete implementation detail.

Alliance boundary

The scenarios and revenue target express ambition across software and telecom equipment. They do not replace the missing detail about products, deployment, or results. It leaves customers needing concrete product, support, and integration details before the partnership scenarios can be evaluated as a solution. The announcement therefore cannot show whether the intended cross-device workflow reduced work for users or merely described a future product direction.

How the pieces fit

The alliance joined a familiar set of business actions: receive an office-number call on a travelling laptop, start a conference from email, and see a colleague’s availability before choosing a channel. Taken together, those actions reduce the number of handoffs between inbox, directory, phone, and meeting tool. That is the concrete meaning of “unified” in this announcement. It also explains why the lack of product detail mattered: a workflow only becomes useful when the separate identity, presence, and calling functions actually meet at the employee’s screen.