Nortel Networks Corp. launched a new business strategy aimed at the enterprise market along with several new products on Tuesday as it struggles to find opportunity in a stagnant industry.
The company's new focus is on selling more network equipment to businesses, a market that critics say Nortel has neglected.
Supplying enterprise equipment has been a key business for Nortel since the mid 1970s but was shuffled off to the side in the 1990s with the boom of the optical equipment market.
The enterprise operations were lumped together with other divisions. Last month a management shuffle reorganized Nortel's operations into four key divisions, putting enterprise back into the spotlight.
"We're committed to the enterprise space and delivering real bottom-line results," Oscar Rodriguez, president of the new enterprise networks division, said in a statement.
Among the new enterprise products introduced are ones that deliver Internet-based based voice, e-mail and other data services much like U.S. rival Cisco Systems, which has come to dominate the market. The new products will work with Nortel's old technology, as well as with rivals' products.
While Nortel's gross revenues plummeted in the first nine months of the current fiscal year by 43 per cent, its enterprise business suffered only a 16 per cent decline. It accounts for one quarter of Nortel's business.
The company's new focus is on selling more network equipment to businesses, a market that critics say Nortel has neglected.
Supplying enterprise equipment has been a key business for Nortel since the mid 1970s but was shuffled off to the side in the 1990s with the boom of the optical equipment market.
The enterprise operations were lumped together with other divisions. Last month a management shuffle reorganized Nortel's operations into four key divisions, putting enterprise back into the spotlight.
"We're committed to the enterprise space and delivering real bottom-line results," Oscar Rodriguez, president of the new enterprise networks division, said in a statement.
Among the new enterprise products introduced are ones that deliver Internet-based based voice, e-mail and other data services much like U.S. rival Cisco Systems, which has come to dominate the market. The new products will work with Nortel's old technology, as well as with rivals' products.
While Nortel's gross revenues plummeted in the first nine months of the current fiscal year by 43 per cent, its enterprise business suffered only a 16 per cent decline. It accounts for one quarter of Nortel's business.
