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Solutions Enterprise, which partners with SMBs and corporates in India by
providing them with IT services and technology, needed reliable and secure
communication links between their regional offices and their customer sites. The
key requirements from their communication network were Internet connectivity,
telecommunication and mobile connectivity.
“Initially, we used SIP-based IP phones and analog phones that were connected
using a combination of Cisco ATA/Linksys PAP2/Vega Analog gateway and soft PBX (Astrix),”
said Pratik Patel, Director, Solutions Enterprise.
The offices in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and partner companies in England were
connected over Internet/VPN. However, the voice quality between these offices
were poor. As their business grew, calls were missed and could not be traced
back. Another regular problem was that engineers missed urgent messages because
they were on support calls.
“We needed to have better communication with our clients. Missed calls were
becoming a major problem. Our clients, sometimes, had to wait for hours to log a
call,” added Patel.
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| Minhaj Zia,
National Sales Manager, Cisco |
In the situation, the main objectives of the company were to achieve superior
voice quality, encryption, caller ID, voice mail, conference, call
forwarding/transfer/pickup, directory, call hunting and soft clients.
The implementation
The company approached Cisco, their partner of three years, in search of a
solution. Cisco suggested that they implement Unified Communications 500 Series.
“Unified Communications 500 series eliminates multiple servers and combines
voice, data, voicemail, automated attendant, video, security, and wireless
capabilities. It also integrates with it existing desktop applications such as
calendar, e-mail, and customer relationship management (CRM) programs. It is an
easy-to-manage solution that supports up to 50 users in flexible deployment
models based on the clients needs,” said Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager,
Cisco.
It took Solutions Enterprise nearly a month to properly implement the
solution, though the initial setup was fast. Setting up the key features and
synchronizing the system with the different offices took majority of the time.
Business results
Solution Enterprise now operates with more flexibility and ease due to the
efficient pickup and incoming call features. Conferencing is being used
effectively for group discussions and support calls, giving users better control
over outgoing calls. Overall inter-office communications have improved resulting
in improved efficiency and productivity.
The company along with Cisco successfully used products that have supported
their project ojbectives. Solution Enterprise decided to install a small box
with an eight-user capacity and after testing out the product with satisfying
results the full Cisco solution was implemented.
Akhilesh Shukla
akhileshs@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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