Nortel problems no worry for NSC

Voice and telephony integrator, NSC, has added Nortel's unified communications products and services to its portfolio.

Craig Neil, managing director at NSC, told CRN he was "skeptical" when first approached to take on the vendor's products.

Neil said Nortel's Chapter 11 declaration and the sale of its enterprise division - where its unified communications products reside - had been causes for concern when considering a partnership.

Nortel's enterprise assetts won't be up for auction until September 11.

Although Avaya announced in July that it was interested in purchasing Nortel's enteprise solutions business.

"We went out and did our research and found there was a massive base of Nortel customers being poorly supported," Neil said.

"[Nortel's] partners were struggling to support [customers]. Support is what we do well and that's what customers want at the end of the day."

Neil said customers appeared to be sticking with Nortel's products despite the vendor's shake-up.

"Our research found customers still felt the same way about Nortel's products and weren't ready to throw [them] out the window," he said.

Neil believed Avaya's purchase of Nortel's enterprise assets would be good for NSC.

"[NSC] has a good relationship with Avaya and know how it operates in Australia and New Zealand," he said.

"If approved, the acquisition will strengthen Avaya's base in Australia and help it take on quality people."

Neil said NSC had recently hired "a dozen employees" to support Nortel customers.