Alcatel-Lucent launches assault on Cisco

Alcatel-Lucent is launching a major offensive to try and win market share from its competitors, especially Cisco. 

The buzzword was "transformation" at the company's Enterprise Forum in Paris, which applied to both Alcatel-Lucent and its clients.

"Transformation is all about reinventing yourself," said Oscar Rodriguez, chief marketing officer for the Alcatel-Lucent business group.

"It is about improvement, about moving to the next step so that we can progress as a world, as a planet, as a people and in everything that we do."

Rodriguez explained that "transformation" will allow Alcatel-Lucent to increase its own business by helping its customers to grow their own.

"The title of 'transformation' really means how we transform an enterprise to continue to grow, to drive profits, to drive capabilities, so they can serve their customers and advance their employees' abilities to serve those customers, " he said.

Tom Burns, president of the Enterprise Solutions Division at Alcatel-Lucent, said that chief information officers and chief executives are spending a lot of money on IT and telecoms and expect the investments to pay dividends.

"They are looking for a way to transform this asset and this investment to become a competitive threat and be part of their business model," he said.

"Once these foundations are built, enterprises are asking how they can make their users and customers more productive.

"This is pushing information outside the standard boundaries of the enterprise, giving people the information they need, in the format that they need it and on the device they want it."

One of the problems Alcatel-Lucent will have to overcome to achieve its goals is what chief executive Pat Russo referred to as an "uncertain" merger.

As a player in a market with some major competitors, Alcatel-Lucent has to get its name out there and scrap for market share. But the company acknowledged that it will not usually be the name on everyone's lips.

"While everyone [at the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum] obviously knows who we are, I am well aware that in the broader market in which we compete we have some formidable competitors and we may not always be the first company that comes to mind," said Russo.