Nortel
Positioning Thought Leaders in the Converged Enterprise

The Challenge:

While Nortel maintained a steady stream of news and garnered coverage from editorial calendars, the company approached LP&P to help heighten the visibility of its executives, as well as position them as thought leaders on the converged enterprise. In addition to media briefings, Nortel felt it needed to demonstrate leadership through additional avenues, such as byline placements.

Nortel recognized that Cisco had a firm leadership position in the networking space, per analysts and media, and wanted to aggressively address this challenge. The company was interested in driving the perception that Nortel is “the only alternative to Cisco” in the enterprise market.

The LP&P Difference:

To expand on the success of Nortel's editorial program - which primarily focuses on the IT trade publications - LP&P leveraged speaking abstracts from Nortel's Enterprise business unit and converted them into bylined pitches for the media. For example, in October 2002 when Nortel announced its’ "One Network. A World of Choice" strategy for the enterprise, LP&P developed several abstracts demonstrating key themes and trends in the converged enterprise to be pitched to IT, CRM/Call Center and vertical publications. In essence, the bylined campaign was designed to establish the company and its executives as thought leaders in the enterprise industry, as well as to be viewed as trusted, long-standing resources for industry information for customers and potential customers.

In addition to implementing the byline campaign, LP&P addressed the competitive campaign with a focused proactive and reactive program. If Cisco made an announcement and one of Nortel targeted publications covered the news, LP&P would provide that reporter with information concerning Nortel competitive product. If a publication printed a byline authored by Cisco, LP&P would conjure a response demonstrating Nortel's position on the topic. By providing these editors with background on Nortel's products and solutions, and stance on various industry topics, LP&P was able to keep Nortel on that editor’s radar for upcoming stories.

The Results:

By implementing the byline campaign, LP&P was able to expand Nortel's involvement with its customers by providing them with an objective point of view concerning industry standards and technological issues. By focusing on publications that accept bylined articles, LP&P was also able to broaden Nortel's exposure into more targeted and vertical publications, such as the IT, CRM and speech technology markets. As a result, LP&P has cultivated strong relationships with editors from Certification Magazine, CRM Magazine and Customer Interaction Solutions. Internet Telephony now runs a bylined series from Nortel's Tony Rybczynski.

LP&P continues to be approached by editors with regards to Nortel and Cisco’s news. For instance, LP&P secured coverage for Nortel in a competitive article from eWEEK. Nortel was included in this story because LP&P regularly pitched Nortel's messaging and news to this editor and she was aware of the company’s competitive products to Cisco and wanted a Nortel comment.

Bylined Article Placement during the 15 month program

Internet Telephony
Making Business Realities Work For You!

Internet Telephony
Making Business Realities Work For You!
Part II: Optimizing All Contacts With The Customer

Business Communications Review
Designing VOIP networks: Lessons from the edge

Internet Telephony
The "Dangerfield Principle" in Voice over Packet Systems

Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Customer Relationship Management
CRM Across The Enterprise: Integrating The Channels

Internet Telephony
Making Business Realities Work For You
Part III: Eliminating The Barriers Between Networks

CRM Magazine
Moving Beyond ROI: Why it's time to embrace ROE (Return on Engagement).

Certification Magazine
Certification Raising Your Stock as an Employee

Internet Telephony
Making Business Realities Work For You
Part IV: Putting Security Into The DNA Of The Enterprise Network

Internet Telephony
Making Business Realities Work For You
Part V: Playing By The New Rules Of Networking

SearchSecurity.com
IPSec and SSL: Complementary approaches to ensure digital data protection and integrity

Internet Telephony
Making Business Realities Work For You: Part VI: Why ‘best effort’ isn’t the best for your enterprise network.

Customer Interaction Solutions
14 Benefits for IP-Enabling a Contact Center

Customer Interface
The Seven Myths About IP Contact Centers

Internet Telephony
The Maturing Wireless LAN

Internet Telephony
IP Telephony Lessons From The LAN Edge

Communications Convergence
IP Telephony for Mobility With Choice

Internet Telephony
Lessons from The Edge: VoIP In The WAN

Internet Telephony
Transforming IP Telephones Into
Information Appliances

Internet Telephony
Lessons From The Customer Edge: IP Contact Centers

Communications Convergence
Choices in IP Convergence (excerpt from ‘Visions of Convergence Products of the Year 2004’)

Internet Telephony
2004: The year of Convergence

Certification Magazine
Nortel Certification: Contributing to a Successful Partnership

Communications News
Convergence Choice for the Enterprise

Customer Interaction Solutions
Internet Telephony in the Contact Center