Networking gear maker Mitel Networks laid off an unspecified number of employees today in what an executive called a "modest and prudent" reaction to the poor global economy.

Mitel is a private company in Canada, that makes communications equipment and sells managed network services and has its US headquarters in Phoenix. Its Web site lists 3,000 workers in 100 locations globally.

Mitel purchased Inter-Tel in August 2007, and CEO Don Smith, in an interview last month, described the past year as a success in integrating Inter-Tel's technology with Mitel's.

Today, Paul Butcher, Mitel's chief operating officer, said in a telephone interview that despite the restructuring, Mitel will continue its business in all the global markets where it has been operating.

"We've implemented a restructuring today," he said. "We're concerned about the economy going forward and preparing ourselves for a downturn. We're expecting the IT industry is going to slow down."

Butcher added that the actions taken today were "not outstanding, and we're taking costs out across the board."

One rumor that the layoffs had been "massive" is false, he said. "It's definitely the wrong word," Butcher said. "Modest and prudent is correct."

While operations continue globally, Butcher said the company had "done all we can to preserve the customer-facing [product] roadmap unchanged." He provided no details, however.

One top official, the vice president of marketing, left as a result of today's actions, he said. Mitel's Web site identifies Simon Gwatkin as that official.

"Obviously, it's a brave man who can forecast the economic outlook over the next six to nine months," Butcher added. "You don't have to be in IT to take this action, and we're behaving prudently to remain strong, to continue to be cmpetitive and to continue market share in every market we're in."

One analyst, Zeus Kerravala at Yankee Group, said Mitel's restructuring comes even though the company "makes a good product and has good vertical market expertise." But Kerravala added that a "tough economy drives customers to larger vendors that they know, such as Cisco and Avaya." During such times a fairly new entrant like Mitel "finds it tough."