Integration of Nortel and Avaya personnel should be smoothed out some because Avaya has been revamping its internal staff hierarchy for the past 18 months, Abbott says, with about 80% of the company's leadership team being put in place during that time to simplify the management structure. "It was built to scale," he says.

As Avaya has said before, the company plans to sell and support all Nortel lines for 12 to 18 months and to lay out a migration plan for any products that it decides to phase out. Abbott says the company's Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based architecture makes it possible for customers with SIP-based gear to keep their current equipment live and blend in Avaya gear. "We won't force any end-of-life that's going to require a rip-and-replace for any customer," he says. The gear they have will work in the new architecture, he says.

The Nortel name is not part of the deal, so after products now in the production pipeline have shipped, all the former Nortel gear will carry the Avaya label.

Avaya plans to maintain former Nortel facilities in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, Richardson, Texas, and San Jose. In the case of the San Jose office, that will mean the closing of the current Avaya facility and consolidating staff into one site.