Allan Sulkin sent in this post. No Jitter readers have recently seen numerous posts about the Cisco and Avaya conferences attended by many industry analysts who track the enterprise communications market. A few months ago there were several posts about the Siemens analyst conference held in Vienna, Austria. Readers who wonder why they have not seen any postings about a Nortel industry analyst conference should know that it is difficult to post about something that never happened.
Allan Sulkin sent in this post.
No Jitter readers have recently seen numerous posts about the Cisco and Avaya conferences attended by many industry analysts who track the enterprise communications market. A few months ago there were several posts about the Siemens analyst conference held in Vienna, Austria. Readers who wonder why they have not seen any postings about a Nortel industry analyst conference should know that it is difficult to post about something that never happened.Nortel has not held an industry analyst conference for more than three years, May 2005. Since that time much has happened in the industry, but the analysts have been left to their own resources to keep up with Nortel. Nortel continued to hold annual consultant conferences, but the less said about this year's meeting the better for Nortel, because the consultants were mixed in with business partners and not one presentation was designed or presented with the consultants in mind.
Since May 2005 all of Nortel's major global competitors - Avaya, Cisco, Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, and Mitel - have traditionally held annual meetings for analysts. Based on prodding from this analyst, NEC finally held their first conference last year dedicated exclusively for industry analysts instead of a combined consultant/analyst event. Interactive Intelligence Inc., a market niche competitor, holds annual conference attended by analysts. Even Aastra held an analyst event a few weeks ago (perhaps influenced on a conversation I had with one of the corporate officers at this year's VoiceCon Orlando conference).
The conferences are traditionally convened to bring together corporate executives and industry analysts for an exchange of information and ideas. I'm not sure who benefits more, but it does allow analysts to personally interact with executives to gain better insight to corporate strategies and tactics. It also brings industry analysts up-to-date on recent product announcements and previews product roadmaps. The more one knows about a company the better the analytical insights. To gauge analyst intimacy with Nortel, at the recent Avaya meeting I asked five analysts a simple question: What is the name of the current president of Nortel Enterprise Solutions? It was unanimous. Sorry, Joel Hackney, but no one remembered your name. At least no one answered Rick Faletti (who departed many years ago).
Based on my personal conversations with many fellow analysts, the perception of Nortel as a leading enterprise communications market player has been declining rapidly the past few years. I attribute this partially to Nortel's weakened state of marketing communications the past few years. Nortel once set the standard for analyst and consultant conferences, but those days are long gone. Nortel once battled AT&T/Lucent/Avaya for the enterprise communications leadership position in North America, but has lost ground recently to Avaya and has watched Cisco run past them as if they were standing still.
During the past few years, Nortel's executive management team has undergone a major overhaul following the financial difficulties and scandals of the Frank Dunn years. Nortel also entered into a strategically important venture with Microsoft in the interim since the 2005 analyst conference. One would think that a confab with industry analysts would be justified with so many major corporate events occurring in a quickly changing market.
Someone at Nortel finally recognized there was a problem, because Skip McCaskill, the former director of Cisco's highly organized and efficiently run analyst program, was installed as director of Nortel's analyst/consultant relations program a few months ago. I conversed with Skip shortly after he joined Nortel and told him he was in a tough situation that needed to be addressed quickly. Nortel needs to do something soon and in a big way. Years ago industry analysts looked forward to the Nortel analyst conferences, because we knew we would be mixing with top executives, receive detailed information, and enjoy ourselves at great evening events.
It's ironic that Nortel's decimated marketing efforts to industry analysts have occurred while its weaknesses and gaps in its product portfolio have been addressed and greatly strengthened. For example, the original Nortel Succession 1000, its first major IP telephony offering, was not the best designed system and lacked support of digital telephones to support migration from the huge Meridian 1 installed base; the current CS 1000E is light years better in design structure and functional capabilities.
Someone at Nortel better wake-up before it is too late. The enterprise communications game is changing and they may not know it. Questions about its relationship with Microsoft, its distribution strategy and tactics, product strategy (CS 1000E roadmap, favoring the Microsoft UC solution ahead of its own MCS 5100, wideband codec support for its IP telephone instruments, et al), and corporate direction need to be answered. I remember when Nortel tripled its market share during the 1980s to challenge the once-invincible AT&T. Now it must work hard to remain ahead of its fellow Canadian system supplier Mitel Networks for market share in the North American large enterprise systems market.
I await my invitation to the next Nortel industry analyst conference, hoping it comes before retirement (and is held at a location I can fly to on a direct flight, because I HATE making airport connections).
