Avaya finalises Nortel roadmap

Shorten: customers have been waiting for this and we will see a surge in demand

Avaya's UK chief has predicted that "artificially low" market demand will surge on the back of the vendor's finalised integration of Nortel products.

The roadmap, unveiled earlier this week, provided no major product casualties, although Avaya indicated its desire to move Nortel services provision away from third-party maintenance contracts to a white-label resale offering.

Lee Shorten, Avaya's UK and Ireland managing director, said uncertainty around the product portfolio had stifled end user demand.

"My feeling is that there is a pent-up demand in the UK," he said. " Customers have been waiting for this and (demand) is artificially low. We will see a surge where it will become high."

Shorten added that the acquisition has addressed channel recruitment plans in the UK, providing "the last parts that we needed". He indicated he would finalise the distribution line-up in the coming months.

Steve Walker, managing director of Avaya Platinum partner IP Integration, said: "The scale of the two organisations together is good for us, as is the fact that Nortel is a channel-friendly business. My only concern is around the amount of business it did through BT. We do not want our kudos to diminish."

Walker added that skilling up on some of the lower-end Nortel portfolio could provide revenue.

"We have clients with Avaya Aura at the core and Nortel BCM at the edge, which we have been backing off to third parties," he said. "We will probably look at accreditation on the BCM kit."