VoIP migration strategies are not one size fits all. The rip-and-replace or forklift approach makes sense for some organizations, but for most, the hybrid route is more reasonable from a cost and management perspective. Mixing IP and legacy TDM technology provides a gradual path to VoIP migration and allows companies to tap into the enhanced productivity, mobility and management features of VoIP without investing in an across-the-board network upgrade.

Last year, Nortel announced a new business strategy aimed at small and midsized businesses (SMBs). The company's all-in-one Business Communications Manager (BCM) not only secured the gold medal in the hybrid PBX category of our Product Leadership Awards, it is winning SMBs over to VoIP.

Shifting from a Windows-based platform to a Linux platform, BCM provides SMBs with an affordable (and relatively painless) path to converged voice and data communications. Among readers who responded to our product leadership survey, 78% rated BCM's interoperability and network integration good to excellent, and the company scored equally well on vendor service and support.

Though the BCM scored well on interoperability and integration, one respondent noted that it would be more attractive if it offered integration with competing soft phone vendors and provided greater support for other SIP clients, such as Microsoft Live Communications Server Client.

Offering a rich and robust collection of telephony features, Nortel's BCM has a portfolio of more than 200 features, including unified messaging, multimedia call centers, auto attendant, universal Internet access, and a handy collaborative feature called IDConvergence of Services over IP that supports e-business applications.

BCM's IP communications and messaging capabilities scored high, with just under 79% of users rating Nortel's IP applications good or excellent and more than 86% of users describing the company's voice quality as good to excellent.

The product offers advanced IP communications solutions for single and multi-site businesses, empowering organizations to adopt IP-based solutions at their own pace while retaining the reliability of traditional systems.

Leigha Cardwell, Site Editor