TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 11/03/09 -- Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can obtain productivity, cost-savings and the investment protection critical to success in today's business environment with new unified communications-based (UC) software from Nortel(1) (OTCBB: NRTLQ). The latest software release 5.0 for Nortel's award-winning Business Communications Manager (BCM) adds new UC capabilities, including unified presence, and greater simplicity with the introduction of a common software stream for BCM50 and BCM450.

The Nortel BCM450 and BCM50 are Linux-based IP/TDM PBXs delivering application-rich, all-in-one solutions for converged voice and data communications. The BCM50 serves businesses with up to 50 users while the larger capacity BCM450 is suitable for growing medium to large businesses and branch offices with up to 300 users. Each supports a mix of IP and digital clients and can enable firms to save up to 70 percent of their original investment by reusing existing equipment.

As part of the new BCM Rls 5.0 software, BCM450 and BCM50 provide SMBs with dynamic UC features like InTouch, which delivers true federated presence, and popular integrated communications applications and capabilities. InTouch lets users communicate easily with anyone in their personal directory - across Microsoft Outlook, Nortel BCM, MSN, and Skype for click-to-call, click-to-IM, and click-to-email. By connecting people faster, improving collaboration and speeding up the time to decision, Nortel estimates that unified communications can help businesses realize cost-savings and an increase in productivity of up to 18 percent.

Last year, the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau(2) (NCVB) leveraged its BCM450 solution to book more than 650,000 hotel rooms while marketing tourism on behalf of various partners. NCVB is now trialing BCM Rls 5.0 and plans to roll out the InTouch application in the coming weeks. Kay Hopwood, NCVB's director of Information Technology, is looking forward to seeing real-time presence for everyone on the network and having a view into missed calls even when a caller does not leave a voicemail. For now, NCVB is enjoying the first BCM Rls 5.0 feature it deployed, FindMe/FollowMe (FMFM), which enables simultaneous ringing of up to five additional external devices. "Every call is potential business," said Hopwood. "With BCM's FindMe/FollowMe capability, our sales team never has to miss another revenue-generating call again."

Minitel(2), a premier Nortel partner providing service across Canada, also chose to trial BCM Rls 5.0 in its own office production system. Its Toronto vice president of Operations, Dan Silverman, was so pleased with the progress of the in-house trial he convinced a large accounting firm client to deploy it as well. "The installation was as smooth as could be and the client is now rolling out both InTouch and FindMe/FollowMe to multiple users in their organization with ease. We were able to get our client up to speed on the interface and rolling the application out by themselves in less than an hour," said Silverman.

Mexico's Universidad Latinoamericana(2) (ULA) similarly tested the latest BCM software with positive results. "We are in the business of educating today's youth and preparing them for the future and the challenges ahead," said Mario Ahumada Sandoval, subdirector of Systems, ULA. "To do so, we count on having the latest in communications technology that helps us offer a rich UC experience for staff and students. Trialling BCM Rls 5.0, we found that the product's new feature set enhances our UC experience, while maximizing equipment already in place."

BCM50 customer, Philkeram-Johnson(2), the oldest ceramic tile producer in Greece, also welcomed the new software release. "Our Nortel BCM50 gives us room to grow, in terms of capacity and functionality, and it delivers the features we need to evolve to a unified communications environment," said Christos Syropoulos, commercial manager, Philkeram-Johnson. "We are constantly seeking ways to enhance our products and our productivity so we can respond more quickly to customers. I'm eager to find out more about the new features available in BCM Rls 5.0 and how we can use them to enhance our communications."

In addition to the InTouch and FMFM capabilities, BCM Rls 5.0 lets a user forward a voice message using a file so that it can be played or read by any mobile device in the world. Meet-Me Conferencing for BCM now provides up to 125 ports with support for as many as 300 users. Professional Call Recording, a capability typically supplied by a third party is also available as part of the latest BCM release.

As a further means of streamlining costs and operations making it even more simple for SMBs and Nortel channel partners to install, provision, and migrate pre-existing data, the new BCM50 and BCM450 portfolio includes common software and applications, O/S, training, accreditation, user interfaces, and documentation.

Dell'Oro ranks Nortel's SMB portfolio #1 in the world in number of hybrid-IP lines shipped and #2 in SMB market revenue for the second quarter 2009. Nortel's BCM solutions are localized and sold in over 120 countries through more than 1000 channels.

Hear from more BCM users and partners:

- "FindMe/FollowMe and Message Forwarding allow Charter Telecom's(2) sales and technical staff to be more accessible to our customers, whether in the office or on the road. With the ability for individual users to customize these features to their liking through a Web-based GUI tool Mailbox Manager. Our system administrator no longer has to make daily changes. FMFM and the ability to seamlessly transfer calls between our desk phones and cellular phones has also allowed us to lower our costs, provide our staff with more flexibility, and increase our availability to customers." - David Harper, voice systems engineer, Charter Telecom - Canada

- "Our office communications have been based exclusively on Nortel's BCM systems for years. We recently upgraded to the latest BCM technology, retaining most of our initial investment in hardware and all of the investment in software licenses. The new UC functionality increases our productivity and saves time. It also allows us to connect to other systems like Communications Server 1000 and Microsoft OCS. With InTouch we are able to manage our online contacts at MSN and Skype from a single application interface in MS Outlook, along with our office colleagues, customers, and partners." - Nikos Koulioumbis, SMB solutions director, UniNortel SA(2) - Greece

- "Innovative new features such as InTouch with federated presence, FindMe/FollowMe, Professional Call Recording and enhanced CTI applications are all great productivity enhancers that will save businesses time and money and this really resonated with the customers we talked to at a recent seminar held in Nortel's Maidenhead office. We had enthusiastic feedback from attendees including a London-based voice and data solutions provider who said he most enjoyed the portion of the seminar that focused on BCM Rls 5.0." - Thomas Jacques, managing director, 1st Communications(2) - UK

- "The BCM product has always been one that we've been proud to offer to our customers due to its converged voice and data solution for small and medium businesses. As a longtime channel partner of Nortel's in Mexico, we look forward to being able to offer those same features, in addition to newly enhanced ones with the new software release of BCM Rls 5.0 with new features such as FindMeFollowMe, Professional Call Recording, and enhanced CTI applications which will increase our customer's productivity." - Jorge Alberto Jimenez Hernandez, director of engineering, Innovaciones Telematicas, S.A. de C.V.(2) (INTELEMATICA) - Mexico

About Nortel

Nortel delivers communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel's technologies are designed to help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.

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