Nortel Networks said today it is reorganizing the company to better handle the industry’s move to convergence.
"Convergence is here and now, and our enterprise and carrier customers are demanding partners who can deliver enterprise innovation on carrier-grade platforms,” said Bill Owens, vice chairman and CEO, in a news release. “We're playing to win, and that means having the determination and flexibility to transform our teams, simplify our portfolio, and focus our resources close to our customers, as well as harness both the power and opportunities of network convergence.”
Nortel is simplifying its business model by creating two product groups – Enterprise Solutions and Packet Networks, and Mobility and Converged Core Networks – that use common hardware and software platforms. The first group will be led by Steve Slattery; the second by Richard Lowe. Malcolm Collins, president of enterprise networks, is leaving Nortel.
The company is combining assets such as Ethernet and enterprise telephony, and optical and wireline data into one product group for enterprises and carriers. Meanwhile, the Mobility and Converged Core Networks group will consolidate Nortel’s mobile and network technologies businesses.
Meanwhile, Nortel also is forming four regional teams that will focus on customer service, product deployment. These teams will be led by Steve Pusey, executive vice president of Nortel and president of the Eurasia region; Dion Joannou, president of the North America region; Robert Mao, president and CEO for the Greater China region; and Martha Bejar, president of the Caribbean and Latin America regions and Emerging Markets Strategy.
Sue Spradley, president of global services and operations, will continue to head Nortel’s managed services.
Telecom analyst Jeff Kagan says Nortel’s reorganization could have positive and negative implications. “On the plus side, it redesigns the company to attack the new opportunities head on, but on the other hand it admits that something in the old model was broken and needed fixing,” he says. “The new design of creating two product groups and four regional sales teams seems to make sense.”
Nortel has been through its share of financial and leadership troubles in the past years, and now that those struggles are behind the company, Kagan says it now can focus on market opportunities.
“The bottom line is, this redesign makes sense, but we will not know if it works for a while,” he notes.
