Bangkok--10 Aug--Weber Shandwick Microsoft and Nortel Celebrates Its Success on Innovative Communications Alliance More Than 430,000 Licenses Providing Within One Year Microsoft Corp. and Nortel revealed businesses are deploying more than 430,000 licenses for joint solutions in one year regarding a unique alliance to transform business communications by combining Nortel’s network quality and Microsoft’s reliable unified communications software. The customers are confident in this cooperation between Nortel and Microsoft since the solutions are enhancing their business communications for improved productivity and to help lower total cost of ownership. Over the past year, Microsoft and Nortel have begun to streamline their licensing to make it easier for customers to buy and manage joint solutions. As the alliance enters its second year, the companies are continuing their joint research and development across enterprise, carrier and mobile product lines and are poised to ship a variety of new and updated products in the coming months, including Nortel’s UC integrated branch. “Our relationship with Nortel is an important component of our strategy for unified communications, and over the past year we’ve hit significant milestones that benefit both companies,” said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president for the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft. “In the year ahead, we expect to see even more robust customer interest around the world based on our joint technology solutions.” “Nortel’s alliance with Microsoft has been a tremendous success for us and our customers,” said Steve Slattery, president of Enterprise Networks at Nortel. “Our deep collaboration in product development is providing businesses with better ways to communicate, and our joint go-to-market activity has already produced impressive results. In addition, our alliance with Microsoft is opening doors to new customers for our entire enterprise portfolio and is a key reason for the accelerated performance of our Enterprise Solutions business year over year.” Customers such as Indiana University (IU), Worcestershire Health Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Services (WHICTS) and 4ward have embraced the industry relationship and continue to experience significant business value. Mr. Slattery revealed that Indiana University, one of the largest universities in the United States, is deploying Nortel’s Communication Server (CS) 2100 and a beta version of Microsoft? Office Communications Server 2007 to improve desktop productivity and give workers access to combined telephony, e-mail, collaboration, presence, instant messaging and desktop services in order to give students and faculty an educational advantage at one of America’s most IT-savvy universities. While Worcestershire Health Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Services (WHICTS) is deploying Nortel’s CS 1000 and Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 to connect health professionals across the county more efficiently and create better ways for remote employees to share information, thus helping to streamline patient care, have a positive impact on productivity and reduce travel costs. “A famous service provider in Hong Kong who is impressive of the alliance between Nortel and Microsoft is 4ward. This company makes IT and communications solutions easy to buy, easy to own and easy to live with so customers can focus on their core business, not their infrastructure. The unified communications system combines the power of Nortel’s IP telephony with the collaboration capability of Office Live Communications Server and the unified messaging features of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 to provide a seamless user-friendly experience.” Mr. Slattery added. More information about the Innovative Communications Alliance is available at http://www.innovativecommunicationsalliance.com. About Microsoft Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. About Nortel Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering 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. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news. *Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks. For more information: Kamonwan Thansri / Rungnapa Charnwiset Weber Shandwick Tel: 02 343 6000 ext. 057 / 061