Tech Solution
A flexible infrastructure from one vendor. Dave explains why handsets that would handle high volumes of data were a vital element.
“When we spoke to BT they came up with a solution based on Nortel infrastructure and hardware. It was quite key for us to get a solution from one vendor. And we were interested in the integration of all of the equipment. We didn’t want situations where we may have a problem with this telephony system talking to the network switches. We wanted to be sure that everything was built from the ground up, able to communicate with each other. Because we wanted to plug our PCs into the telephones to reduce our cabling needs, we really needed a phone that could handle large packets of data quite easily. And the handsets we were looking at from Nortel gave us that capability. They had switch technology built into the handset, so that was a real essential for us. We decided to go with BT based on several issues. One, not surprisingly, was cost. They were very competitive when it came to the tender bids that they put in. And secondly, I wanted a solution from a company that I felt were able to deliver the project in the timescale we had available. We gave ourselves and BT a very tight deadline. We needed to be closing down our old system on Friday lunchtime and we needed to be operational in our new building first thing Monday morning. It wasn’t without it’s headaches to be honest we had some issues with our network switch programming, but I have to say that BT pulled out all the stops where necessary and we were operational first thing Monday morning. So very pleased indeed.”
More on Unified Communications
Today your customers expect to reach you not just by phone and email, but via Instant messaging and even social networks.
Unifying your communications lets you do this fast. Features include:
- Retrieve and manage voicemail, email and fax messages from one mailbox
- Use ‘Presence’ capability to see peoples’ status and to find out if they are available
- Click on a contact from a directory, email or instant message and call them immediately from your PC or laptop
- Internal and remote site instant messaging between colleagues
Click on our Unified Comms topic hub for more details.