Nortel Buzzboard

This morning Nortel issued this press release announcing the acquisition of Pingtel. This acquisition strengthens Nortel’s efforts in providing an open-source unified communications solution.

Back in April, I blogged about Nortel’s new open-source UC solution for SMBs, the SCS 500. The SCS 500 is based on sipXecs (not Asterisk), which is a SIP-based open-source IP-PBX platform for VoIP. To-date, Nortel has contributed more than 300 new applications and features to sipXecs, helping transform its use into a full-featured unified communications platform capable of integrating VoIP, instant messaging, presence, on-demand audio/video conferencing, and unified messaging.

So how does Pingtel relate to all this?

Well it turns out that …

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Tony Rybczynski debates Asterisk vs. xipXecs

Here on Buzzboard, I recently talked about the introduction of Nortel’s new SCS 500, a unified communications platform for SMBs. The “wow” part of the product is the fact that it is open-source, built on sipXecs (from SIPfoundry).

For some, the question that comes up is why Nortel chose to build the SCS 500 on sipXecs, and not Asterisk – since Asterisk seems to have much more visibility and momentum in the open-source space today.

Nortel enterprise guru Tony Rybczynski recently addressed this exact topic over on his blog on TMCnet, with a detailed list of reasons why SIPfoundry’s sipXecs is better …

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One piece of Nortel news that slipped past me recently was our introduction of the Software Communication System (SCS) 500, a new unified communications solution targeted specifically for SMBs in the 30-500 user range (though it can scale to 1000).

The Nortel Softphone 3455 - which can be used as part of Nortel’s software-based SCS 500 unified communications solution for SMBsA new UC solution from Nortel for SMBs, you say? Probably some new cousin of our BCM50 or some scaled down version of one of our IP-PBXs, right?  One way or another you’re probably thinking “a new box.”

But no, this new product release is a shiny, round…disk.  A CD-ROM — because SCS500 is completely software-based.  Not only that, but it is built on open source technology — SIPfoundry sipXecs to be exact.  Yes you heard me right — Nortel just introduced a new fully software-based, open source solution.  Got your attention?  Here are the details….

SCS500 bundles together VoIP, instant messaging, presence, on-demand audio/video conferencing, unified messaging
The solution also provides some advanced call routing features that are not commonly available on SMB solutions, including automatic call distribution (ACD), advanced auto attendant, personal auto attendant, and find me / follow me.
Two softphone clients are available as part of the solution.  You can also use Nortel IP phones, LG-Nortel IP phones, or even multi-supplier devices. 
Application integration is a big focus, with plug ins available for Microsoft Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes that integrate SCS500’s UC capabilities with those applications.
Go here for an interactive virtual tour of the SCS500 and some of it’s capabilities (mainly focused on VoIP and softphone capabilities).  There are some additional details and multimedia tools available off the Nortel UC solutions for SMBs page.

To be clear, you can’t just go to your local Best Buy and buy a copy of SCS500 off the shelf.  The solution is currently available on IBM and Dell servers.  In fact, we’ve talked about these two offerings individually in a few recent press releases.

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