Avaya has announced it will support discontinued Nortel products for up to five years.

The vendor’s buyout of its fallen rival is set to close next month. At Avaya’s partner conference in Prague this month, senior vice president of sales and president of field operations Todd Abbott said: “Integrated roadmaps will be completed within 30 days of the transaction. Anything that gets end-of-lifed will still be shipped for 12­ - 18 months and supported for three to five years.”

Abbott told CRN the vendor would strive to eliminate duplication. He added: “We will be objective about it.”

He stressed to partners that Avaya’s SIP-based Aura architecture, launched in April, would remain the vendor’s “strategic direction”.

Once the acquisition is completed, a $6bn (£3.6bn) company with 15,000 to 20,000 employees will be created, Abbott claimed.

“We are not going to make the mistake that Cisco made of over-covering the market,” he added.

He had another dig at the networking giant in hitting back at suggestions that Avaya could end up in the same dire straits as Nortel.

“Do not believe any FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt] from my biggest competitor,” he said.

Nortel’s partners will move into the Avaya Connect channel programme a month after its launch on 1 February. They will assume the equivalent tier to that which they held in the Nortel scheme, but will require Avaya product training before they can start selling.

Laura Harman, business unit director at Nortel distributor Avnet Technology Solutions, welcomed Avaya’s Nortel plans.

“With Avaya looking to provide continuity for Nortel Enterprise Solutions by adopting the data products, the Nortel roadmap and investment plan, it proves their commitment to the Nortel current channel that have invested in people, time and money,” she said.

This year’s partner shindig came one year after Avaya kick-started its drive to become more channel-centric. The vendor revealed it had been garnering just 55 per cent of revenues indirectly ­ compared to rivals Genesys at 70 per cent, Cisco at 86, Nortel at 92 and Microsoft at 95.

Avaya claims it is now transacting about two-thirds of its business through partners. Vice president of worldwide channels Jeremy Butt claimed his firm had followed through on most of the promises made last year, but still had work to do.

“Aligning the services strategy to the channel has been significantly harder [than we planned],” he said.

Avaya’s Support Advantage services programme will be launched alongside the Connect channel programme on 1 February.

President of global services Christopher Formant claimed VARs could cash in on a trend towards managed network infrastructure.

“Currently 35 per cent of network infrastructure is managed and this is expected to grow to 75 per cent,” he added.

Formant also stressed that Avaya was committed to eradicating channel conflict.
“I have been told one story after another of a piece of business being stolen; we are not going to do that anymore,” he said.