A number of news stories hit the internet in the last couple of days proclaiming that with just five weeks to go, Avaya had replaced Nortel as a sponsor of the Vancouver Olympics and Paralympics. There seemed to be a hint of potential gloom in the story leads that surprised me. Having visited Vancouver, and spoken with the Director of IT for one of the key Olympic venues, GM Place, I knew that the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) had locked down the network to changes months ago. (The picture is me and the Canucks mascot, Fin--not the IT director.) That said, the articles caused me to wonder just how the Avaya acquisition of Nortel would impact the Vancouver games. I spent some time today talking to Dave Johnson, general manager of the Olympic program at Avaya to get the answers.If I were to choose one word to describe Dave's answers to a series of questions about Avaya and the games, be it about leadership, technology, or staffing, the answer was continuity. Dave has been responsible for the Olympic relationship since the contracts were signed in August 2007, cradle to grave. The network has been in lockdown since early 2009. Since then it has gone through a series of tests, small tweaks and optimizations and is now fully tested and ready to go.
Asked if the acquisition had brought any changes in the support team, Dave said there has been as much continuity as possible. Because of the unique requirements of the Olympics solution, there were a number of certifications to get people up to speed, beyond what typical systems engineers usually have. That ops team, heritage Nortel, has remained 100 percent intact.
It is in the marketing arena where the team has seen additions, of Avaya marketing people. Asked if the Nortel name or logo will be seen at all at the games, the answer was that the Nortel brand has been completely phased out at this point and will not be seen. The Olympics are often used as an opportunity for customer relationship building with executives from top tier accounts. Elizabeth Ussher, Director of Avaya's Global Demo Program, tells us that it is in the hotel where Avaya customers are staying (the name of which is apparently a state secret) that the company will be showcasing Avaya Aura solutions, like Guest Media Hub, working side-by-side with Nortel gear. The Avaya technology will be run from an outpost of Avaya's global demo facility at the hotel being powered from Avaya's Denver Works. Asked what technologies being deployed in the Olympic network he'd highlight, Dave chose the data networking solutions. Avaya will be powering over 40K Ethernet ports, 15K VoIP lines, 4K TV drops and 500+ wireless access points for the games, and another 1,100 access points for the media. Thousands of athletes and media will join millions of spectators--a CMO's dream global launch for the new Avaya.
