CIENA LAUNCHES IMAGE CAMPAIGN

Ciena, a vendor whose innovations helped spark the market for dense wave division multiplexing technology in the last decade, is turning over a new leaf, announcing a corporate repositioning that paints the one-time optical juggernaut as a supplier of service delivery solutions for the broadband age.

In an exclusive interview with Telephony, Gary Smith, president and CEO of Ciena, said the campaign to portray Ciena in a new light followed a spate of four acquisitions over the course of 18 months, which brought in new platforms, including service delivery technology from broadband access vendor Catena.

“It's a fairly simple message,” Smith said. “The platforms we bought positioned us for growth as a provider of solutions. We're trying not to be all things to all people. The world doesn't need another broad-based, soup-to-nuts vendor.”

Central to the vendor's new messaging is a focus on devising solutions to specific carrier pain points and an emphasis on professional services and software.

“Carriers don't have as many people as they used to, so they are relying on vendors to have more comprehensive solutions,” said Thom Mock, Ciena's senior vice president of strategic planning. “It's more about management with services wrapped around it. We want [carriers] to think of us as a company that can help them deliver new services in a way that decreases the risk and increases the value of the offer.”

The repositioning de-emphasizes Ciena's traditional optical business and reputation at a time when equipment to enable leaps in transport capacity is disappearing from the shopping lists of service providers.

“This move doesn't surprise me,” said Matt Davis, director of broadband access research at Yankee Group. “There is no question that business is starting to slide, and Ciena has been working for a while to get more into end-to-end service delivery. Down the road, they'll still have to execute.”

Ciena is not the only vendor who has been minding its marketing strategy of late. Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks both appointed chief marketing officers within the past year, making it seem like the old guard of telecom equipment vendors is suddenly more conscious of image and less about hardware.

But, Smith said, “We want to continue to be an innovator.”

Mock added, “We're going to keep innovation at the forefront, but change how it's used. There will be a shift in focus to innovation of applications, rather than specific products.”