The story of the System i’s latest incarnation as an IP telephony server took an unexpected turn last week when IBM announced a new deal with Nortel.

Between them, the two companies are to sell a new System i Unified Communications solution, targeting small to medium businesses and branch offices, which will integrate IBM’s Lotus Sametime communications and collaboration software with Nortel's suite of VoIP and multimedia technologies.

The Unified Communications solution is due to debut in the third quarter of this year and the fact that the two companies have highlighted the small to medium business sector would indicate that it is being pitched at a lower tier in the market than the joint 3Com/IBM IP telephony solution launched late last year.

Whatever the case, it would seem that IBM is extremely serious about positioning the System i as the IP telephony server of choice and it would seem that its two partners in the market agree. There is certainly a lot to play for and IBM quoted figures from analyst InfoTech that estimate that the combined revenue for SMB converged applications will grow from around £263 million in 2006 to nearly a billion pounds in 2011.

The integration with Lotus Sametime will deliver advanced telephony plug-ins to the software’s existing unified communication and collaboration tools, which include capabilities such as instant messaging, web conferencing, mobile device support and voice and video chat. As with the 3Com offering, the solution will run under a Linux partition.

Unified Communications will provide users with the ability to select the method of collaboration best suited for the task at hand. For example, Lotus Sametime users will be able to review their contact list to determine who is on their Nortel phone, and also click-to-call or click-to-conference to immediately connect with contacts.

The product will be sold through both Nortel resellers and IBM solution providers who will be provided with training and tools for selling and supporting the product. The solution complements Nortel's existing SMB portfolio of voice and data offerings such as the Business Communications Manager, Business Ethernet Switch, Business Secure Router and Business Access Point. In addition to IP-PBX call features such as call routing, voice mail and unified messaging, the solution is expected to integrate with select e-mail clients.

"This offering provides Nortel channel partners with a remarkable opportunity to grow with a unified communications solution from two worldwide leaders, and represents our commitment to open platforms and applications with industry-leading partners," said Lori McLean, Nortel general manager, Nortel-IBM Alliance. "This integrated solution makes the move to IP telephony along with unified communications as easy as a software upgrade on IBM System i."

Seamus Quinn