Nortel Buzzboard

Today’s next big session at Global Connect is the “User’s Open Forum” - which is generally a one our open session that allows INNUA members to ask questions and interact directly with a panel of Nortel execs. Today’s panel includes: Joel Hackney, pres of Enterprise Solutions, Wes Durow, Nortel VP of Enterprise Marketing and Strategy (moderator), Lauren Flaherty, Nortel CMO, Joe Flanagan, Senior VP of Operations, Dave Murashige, VP of Global Channels, Gayle Lanier, VP of Nortel Knowledge Services, Charlie Wade, EMEA Leader of Enterprise Product Marketing, and several others.

Updates below are in reverse chronological order:

• Question: what are you doing to support your partners with training? Dave Murashige: it’s important for us to have the right kind of partners to help you. We are working through a software and services strategic model to change the type of support work we do here. We can white label some of our professional services. We are also working to put the right curriculum together to support this as well. We have already started this work last year - around Services, UC, Data. We have to make we have the right partners with the right skills, and we need to stand behind them.
• Question: have been a Nortel and Verizon data customer for a long time. My comments would be around looking for a deep knowledge transfer for the data side in North America. It’s hard to find that content in this forum. I’d encourage you to communicate that there is a need for a more data-focused forum. Wes Durow: we have made a conscious effort to include data content in this forum. Gayle Lanier: we also have partners in North America who are working to support our efforts to increase training on the data side. Let us know if you don’t see what you need as we expand that program.
• Question: It appears a lot of Nortel activities are going overseas. What is Nortel’s strategy for North America going forward? Joe Flanagan: we have to be competitive globally. We have to leverage the global population. A lot of that is happening outside of North America. We need to make sure we are close to our emerging markets. At a macro level it’s really about being competitive. We have a huge contingent in Ottawa, Richardson TX, Raleigh. We leverage those capabilities in other parts of the world. Joel Hackney: we are going faster than the competition from the CPE side. But we aren’t as profitable as we need to be. We have to grow the business, and we have to increase the profits of Nortel overall. Nobody likes making those types of tough decisions, but we’ll continue to make those decisions for the profitability and sustainability of the company overall.
• Question: the price structure of Nortel. What is Nortel doing to keep their current customer with incentives? The structure of how we structure our pricing can be simplified. You’ll hear more about this soon. Similar to what we did with UC 1-2-3. We’ve heard that feedback and we’re working to address it, and to simplify our pricing. We are working through our selected partners on this and the launch will be through our partner base.
• Question: marketing is getting better, but in EMEA the marketing presence isn’t as evident. Also, are there any efforts to boost the image of INNUA in EMEA? Charlie Wade: In the past we’ve not focused enough on INNUA membership. I think you’ll see that change. There are some areas where INNUA has fantastic attention in EMEA. Working on some digital marketing ideas around blogs, wikis, the ability to directly connect to product marketing folks to boost visibility. Lauren Flaherty: we are running on CNN and BBC across 120 countries globally for TV ads. That’s top tier. Second tier is some limited print, but a very heavy digital marketing strategy. The third piece is the “in a box” campaign - new this year.
• Question: our company has embraced convergence. But we need to find people that knows Nortel out of the high-school and college level. Are there any plans to going to that level and doing education on Nortel? Gayle Lanier: We’ve heard this one loud and clear, and we’ve been focusing on it. One way is through Nortel Press, which helps with Nortel training. These are self-training courses to support Nortel certification. Additionally, in 2007 we launch the Nortel Technical Solutions Academy - focused to the university level. We have 60 institutions worldwide teaching curriculum that we have given to them free. We have also shortened some of our curriculum paths.
• Question on the continuing importance of TDM and TDM support. Joel Hackney: We recognize the value we bring in 5-nines reliability to the enterprise. That is a differentiator we want to expand upon. At the same time, the transition from TDM to VoIP is accelerating. We believe we can now bring the benefits of a converged network while still bringing the 5-nines reliability.
• Question to marketing - how can you help with my issues with “selling Nortel” to management? Lauren Flaherty: over the last few years we’ve focused on the press issues with a much more aggressive media plan. On balance, our coverage is improving, and we are starting to see a steady upward climb with more coverage, and more favorable coverage. We’ve also launched a more aggressive analyst relations program. Those were the building blocks, and you have to start there. In January, we then started to go more mass marketing. We run steadily on CNN in the U.S. We are running customer reference advertising - showing that marquee customers are making decisions to go with Nortel. We have more in the pipeline. The other part of the story is winning leadership products. The new Nortel is about new platforms like UC, and we are running new ads that focus on our winning product lines. Also, the one area of SG&A where Nortel decided to spend more in 2008 over 2007 was in marketing.