Nortel goes head-to-head with Cisco on green

Communications vendor, Nortel, has launched a head-to-head marketing campaign against rival vendor, Cisco, to show its greener side.

Titled 'Fact or Fiction,' the campaign is based around research conduced by the Tolly Group that backs the vendor's claims that its products use less energy and are cooler to run than Cisco's. The campaign is being supported by the vendor's distributors, Westcon Group and Anixter.

Nortel channels and marketing manager for A/NZ, Neville James, said it had used the research to build a calculator called the Nortel Energy Efficiency Calculator (NEEC) for partners to download.

They can use the figures to onsell the power- and cost-saving benefits of Nortel's networking and IP telephony equipment in different networking scenarios, he said.

The NEEC is being touted as a value proposition tool.

"We're giving partners the tools to factually compare our networking with Cisco and demonstrate substantial savings to customers," James said.

"We're not ignoring the technological superiority we feel we have as well, but the green IT push is the most notable theme around."

Westcon Group and Anixter are supplying logistics and running events around the campaign including roadshows and demonstrations.