I used to hear my dad say, “ No one ever got fired for buying from Big Blue. ” Haven’t heard anyone say that lately about IBM - still a great organization - but no longer selling mainframe computers of which he was a keen proponent of.
But, one could start to think the same of the Cisco juggernaut. They have solutions in just about every segment of the marketplace and seem to hold the majority market share position ….. or at least that is a common market perception.
Though, one has to wonder about the future of the data market now that Avaya has purchased Nortel and has stated its support for the data portfolio as part of its roadmap.
The Avaya data portfolio offers comparable capabilities, is better priced ( approx 50-60% of the Cisco pricing at current price points ), offers significantly more product profit margins to its channel partners and the company has a very solid reputation for supporting them in the marketplace.
Avaya’s owners are working to maintain the support of the Nortel partners during the integration process, are very well funded, have a good number of execs that have written Cisco’s playbook and have industry leading capabilities in Voice-based communications.
Looks like Cisco will no longer be able to usurp all competitors with its data portfolio and then just layer on the communications apps .. they will have to start addressing the changing playing field ASAP because the Avaya value proposition just became significantly better than Cisco’s.
What Are Your Thoughts? Comments?
Avaya will discontinue three Nortel products and one Avaya product as part of the integrated Avaya-Nortel portfolio it plans to officially announce.
Per Todd Abbott - Senior Vice President, Sales and President, Field Operations, Avaya, It will also maintain Nortel's data networking portfolio, offer VARs both Nortel and Avaya options for SMB-centric IP and unified communications suites, and will decide on its future distributor relationships by the end of March.
Following is an excerpt from a ChannelWeb article written by Chad Berndtson, January 19, 2010
As Avaya described at the Partner Conference, it's created a new badge for Nortel's data networking portfolio. Avaya has opted to preserve Nortel's entire data networking line, despite rumors that it would look to sell it or spin it off based on the fact that Nortel's market share in data networking is dwarfed by those of HP and Cisco.
"This is critical for us," Abbott said. "Today we compete with a two-box solution. If you're going to judge us based on the R&D required to be a full-fledged router and switch company, those concerns would be valid. But we're not looking to be a complete end-to-end data provider—you're not going to see us in carrier-based routers and switches. We need to be a fit-for-purpose data provider. Unified communications and contact center is where we will focus our R&D investment. Those are our primary business. The data products complement that and enable it, but it doesn't mean I have to have all the point products in the data portfolio."
For the complete article, follow this link:
www.crn.in/Networks-019Jan010-Avaya-Nortel-Confirms-Product-Road-Map-Will-Preserve-Data-Portfolio.aspx
