A company’s greatest assets include its people and knowledge. In order to leverage full value from these assets, the company must be able to effectively blend them with the network and processes. When this occurs, the company can become a dynamic enterprise.

One of the most effective ways to become a dynamic enterprise is to use information and communication technologies, or ICT, to leverage network, people, process and knowledge. The success of this approach will enable the organization to become more flexible, efficient and secure.

According to Jouni Forsman, research vice president for Gartner (News - Alert), a truly converged approach can offer more and better services for both the business and its customers, but can be difficult to achieve. If major IT and telecom players can get closer to one another, they will be able to offer integrated solutions that will improve the business case for network transformation and help speed the pace of innovation on end-user services.

Acting on such insight, HP and Alcatel-Lucent signed the final agreement on Oct. 20, 2009 for a global alliance to bring to market advanced, carrier-grade, end-to-end integrated telecommunications and IT solutions that address services providers’ and enterprises’ needs for converged ICT.

One question that has emerged is whether or not this alliance can qualify the potential benefits as suggested by Gartner. Christel Heydemann, vice president of strategic alliance HP at Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert), explains, “The combined experience of HP and Alcatel-Lucent clearly positions this alliance as the leader in ICT. With the broadest portfolio in the industry, we will help customers worldwide leverage technology to transform their businesses, overcome their challenges and thrive in an unpredictable market.” 

To deliver on this promise, the Alcatel-Lucent enterprise solutions – including IP telephony and unified communications, contact center technology, converged voice and data, high-end service routing and switching and security – are being integrated and delivered as part of the standardized product and services portfolio of HP.

At the same time, HP and Alcatel-Lucent are working together to define new joint solutions, such as data center transformation and virtualization. These solutions will draw on other Alcatel-Lucent technologies such as IP, optical networks, open access solutions and WAN infrastructure on a per project basis.

A piece in the Connected Planet focused on this new partnership between Alcatel-Lucent and HP, noting the alliance is being announced at a time when IT and telecom are rapidly converging as service provider seek to address the needs of business to outsource increasingly complex network operations that combine what would have traditionally been separate telecom and IT departments and technologies. 

 

“This does give HP another entre into the service provider market, where Alcatel-Lucent has some pre-established relationships,” said David Passmore, an analyst with the Burton Group, in the Connected Planet. “We’ve seen a lot of this type of alliance, and they don’t all work. This one seems real in the sense that HP has agreed to take over Alcatel IT operations and there are dedicated resources to the alliance, which is a pretty good sign of showing a commitment on the part of both parties.”

With this agreement, HP and Alcatel-Lucent will work together to develop the technologies that help network service providers to converge IT and telecom within their network infrastructure to enable more efficient delivery of the next generation of services. In doing so, this alliance will use ICT to leverage network, people, process and knowledge to create a dynamic enterprise.