Nortel and BT buddy up for collaboration

BT and Nortel have today announced a partnership to sell an enterprise software line that will converge businesses' voice and data on a single platform.

The MCS 5100 has been available in the US since last year but got its UK release last week. The platform brings together integrated VoIP, secure instant messaging and videoconferencing, as well as other collaborative working features, including file-sharing and whiteboards, and presence information on who's available and how best to get hold of them.

The theory behind the technology centres on allowing users to have easy access to colleagues and the company network from one place, while reintroducing a human element into internal business communications.

Nortel says the technology now has 10,000 users - although half are within the company itself - and 20 companies on board. While the Canadian vendor says the platform can work for any size of enterprise that needs mobile working, the company is aiming the MCS 5100 at "large, distributed enterprises".

The platform will be sold as a one-off expense on a per-seat basis but Nortel is looking to turn it into a hosted service in the future. It also claims companies will see a return on investment in less than 12 months, with easy-to-measure financial gains from VoIP, as well as the less immediately tangible productivity benefits from easier mobile working.

The platform can also run on most "reasonably recent" phone systems, so users won't need to splash out on a new telephony infrastructure.

The technology is currently being trialled at recruitment website Monster.com and University Hospitals of Geneva, where doctors and consultants are using the technology to hook up for meetings and share medical images.

The partnership is currently in talks with several other companies over adopting the platform. Lucy Dimes, director of ICT and strategic partnerships at BT, said that the telco had been running internal user trials since October 2003 and about 80 people are using the technology.

Nortel has a lot riding on the release and the partnership, with Peter Kelly, EMEA president of enterprise networks, calling the MCS 5100 "the biggest and probably the most important release since the Meridian One in the early 90s".