Nortel Strong-Arms Open Source Vendor Fonality 143
leecidivo alerts us to Tom Keating's blog, where he writes about how Nortel forced a former subsidiary to return its open source-based phone system (Fonality) after the subsidiary went public with how happy they are with the Fonality phone system compared to Nortel. Quoting: "What happens when a VoIP blog (yours truly) writes about the fact that a former Nortel subsidiary (Blade Network Technologies) went looking for a new phone system, chose an open-source Asterisk-based solution from Fonality instead of using Nortel's own PBX and then agreed to go on record on the VoIP & Gadgets blog about why they made such a shocking decision? A) Nothing — it's a VoIP blog — who cares? Nortel is an $11 billion dollar company that certainly doesn't read blogs for their news. B) Nortel reads the blog post, is a little peeved, but other than some emails sent internally, no one outside Nortel would ever know they were annoyed. C) A Nortel Board Member flips out over the article, contacts Blade and then pressures Blade to return the Fonality system and have Fonality print a retraction to the blog article (and the subsequent press release)."
excellent plan (Score:5, Insightful)
nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan.
Re:I wonder... (Score:4, Insightful)
You might note that tens of thousands of nerds reading slashdot are going to find out about this today, and that the story will likely be picked up by an actual news outlet (as opposed to aggregator and discussion board, as is slashdot) soon enough, making Nortel look like precisely the big dipshits they are.
I don't actually know anyone who takes Nortel seriously any more anyway, though. I think the invisible hand of the free market is already giving Nortel what they so richly deserved, if their market share is continuing to drop at a rate similar to that of the three quarters beginning in '04 that cost them 8% not of their share, but of the market.
The option no one pays attention to (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I wonder... (Score:4, Insightful)
Tada! Do I get a prize?
Re:Rather one sided. (Score:3, Insightful)
From trying it? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The guy didn't follow the PR policy (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The guy didn't follow the PR policy (Score:4, Insightful)
You didn't miss it because it wasn't there. But what actually was there was an unrefuted implication that they indeed did do it. Let me help you:
[...]"you didn't follow our internal process for authorizing a press release."
"But it is *your* internal process, and we spoke, with permission, to your own Director of IT, who personally signed off on the release.[...]
If Vikram had denied this, then they almost certainly would have mentioned this in the article, ostensibly to expose his lie. But the next text in the article is about how they never actually installed the product (I am assuming that the press release was concocted strictly on the strength of a demo, but that is quite irrelevant to this particular conversation) and then the next time Vikram is mentioned he is "press"ing Chris for a retraction again. Chris provides an ultimatum to Vikram and is hung up on, without any mention of Vikram ever denying (again) that proper procedure was followed.
So one of several possibilities is true; Vikram could have denied it, and not been quoted. He could have not denied it, and it could still not be true. He could have not denied it, and had it be false; it could very well be that proper procedure was followed.
My point, therefore, is that there is simply not enough information in the article to know which is true, and any indication in the article is that in fact the proper procedure was followed. But regardless, we don't know either way for sure, and so it is irresponsible to make assumptions about what really is or is not the case until we find out more.
misleading article title (Score:4, Insightful)
"Competitor" shows the relationship of Fonality to Nortel, while "open source" is just a blatant use of a popular term that does nothing for the article other than to misleadingly cry "look at me!!"
What's Open Source got to do with the story? The phrase appears twice to describe what kind of product Fonality sells, and then not again for the rest of the entire story. If it was a closed system, would it make any difference to the story? Or a bigger question, would the story have made
Bad publicity === publicity (Score:5, Insightful)
(a) Fonality. That a big ape like Nortel sits up and notices what they did, is testament to how well they handled the job of installing a viable alternative to Nortel's own equipment. This simply proves that Fonality and its products are justfiable expenditure.
(b) Asterisk. That a big ape like Nortel is frightened enough of it brings another feather in Asterisk and Digium's hat.
Nortel has embarassed itself on two accounts:
(a) Its own subsidiary refuses to use its products
(b) It's trying to force-feed its product on others -- how bad does that make it look?
Running Scared (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:misleading article title (Score:3, Insightful)
To prove the point, Keating even linked to his previous interview [tmcnet.com] quoting Lyman as saying, "Trixbox is a free open source community - largely international. Fonality is a commercial paid product, largely domestic. We couldn't be farther apart in communities, interest, or financial objectives. I guess our only real common ground is a usage and love of Asterisk."
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Go Figure (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, as the unfortunate user of a new Nortel telephone system (a choice in which I had no say whatsoever) I can only say that 'customer oriented' is not a term I would associate with Nortel. Not remotely so.
I found both the telephone hardware and the PBX voice interface quite poorly designed. Perhaps it is pretty on the IT integration end, I can't judge that; and the sound quality is good. But whoever designed it forgot to consider human factor. Too many superfluous (and blinking) messages on the display, too long button sequences, an unfriendly and laborious voice mail system, and generally an too complicated interface. Lots of features, but poorly tuned to actual user needs. I think that I am quite good at figuring out how things work, but this telephone system had me seriously puzzled, and the 90-odd page manual wasn't even up to date. I have known lock-in amplifiers that were far more intuitive and easier to use...
If Nortel gets in a panic about the competition getting some publicity, the most logical explanation is that they are all too aware of the weaknesses of their own systems. It shouldn't be too hard for a good competitor to take a substantial market share.
Not clear who has done what here (Score:5, Insightful)
When the author of the blog called Vikram, this guy basically admitted to nothing:
We spoke a little more, but as you can tell, I was getting nowhere with Vikram. However what "wasn't said" spoke volumes -- both from his demeanor and his avoiding answering my questions, in my mind confirmed what Chris said was accurate. I then contacted Nortel to get their perspective. I spoke with a Nortel employee who wishes to remain anonymous. He stated that Eric Schoch, the Nortel board member was travelling and therefore wasn't able to get him to respond. - so the author has believed what Fonality was saying but couldn't really get Blade to confirm this. The author has got a 'gut feeling' that Chris from Fonality was telling the truth and that Vikram from Blade didn't.
Then the author called Nortel:
The employee did however admit that he was aware that Eric sent Vikram (CEO of Blade) a note about the Fonality press release where it simply stated "I would appreciate seeing copies of any news releases that have our name 'Nortel' in it before they go out." The Nortel official explained, "Anything that uses our trademark name we like to take a look at it." The employee added that he was not aware of any pressure applied by Nortel to have Blade reverse their decision on selecting Fonality or forcing a retraction. - so this is the best that we have here and yet the
Oh, don't forget that the author then brings up the fact that Nortel is loosing market share. Well, duh.
This whole thing may or may not be true actually.
Re:Be afraid. Be very afraid. (Score:4, Insightful)
And it's still better than all of your proprietary products.
Exactly. Asterisk is the new sendmail. Crap, but mostly reliable, and everything else is far worse. And just like sendmail what Asterisk proves is that there's a huge opportunity for someone to make one that works - OSS or no.
Dave
Re:Rather one sided. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I wonder... (Score:2, Insightful)
You seem to be equating free software with free employees. I'm not sure what business you are in, but I need to pay for my help.
What happens when AP forgets to pay the support contract bill?
They get fired, that's what.
Also, free software is about more than "philosophy" it's really about the license. Good luck with all your commercial solutions when your company hits a cash flow problem, or forgets to pay the support bill, or uses an unsupported configuration, or allows support to lapse and they want to recertify.
Again, I laugh at your confidence with OSS solutions over commercial solutions. 95% of OSS doesn' even offer what you are suggesting.