PQ Africa`s networking division, PQ Networks has implemented a networking solution that promises to improve internal communication at the City of Cape Town`s municipality (CCT). Internal Communication will receive a boost in the form of a network solution that has connected 2,500 users and 80 remote sites, and will ultimately improve the municipality`s service offering to the public.
The solution involves deploying one of South Africa`s largest Nortel Passport 1200 solutions on the Civic Centre campus and a number Nortel AN/ASN routers. CCT has nine divisions of Council situated around the city centre, which cover Camps Bay, Sea Point, Green Point, The Waterfront and Cape Town itself. Jannie van Rensburg, technical support manager responsible for the network management of CCT says: "Municipalities across South Africa so often have the stigma of bad service attached to them and central to the success of any municipality is efficient internal communication. With PQ Networks` implementation all our remote sites are connected and we can communicate with our staff far more efficiently.
This means that, in turn, our staff communicate more effectively with the public. Additionally, we now boast a network infrastructure that is very stable and a back-bone that has one hundred per cent up time."
CCT planned its existing infrastructure with PQ Networks, prior to the millennium. "We have a long standing relationship with PQ Networks, and in December 1999 they implemented the network backbone to assist us from a Y2K perspective, thus preparing ourselves and the residents of Cape Town for the advent of Y2K," adds van Rensburg.
Passport is a family of high-performance backbone switches designed for building and consolidating high-speed enterprise telephony/data networks. "One of the benefits of the network infrastructure is that it will be capable of carrying voice over IP at a later stage, thus further improving communication and saving on costs," comments Anthony Sassen, Sales Manager at PQ Networks Cape Town.
In terms of support, PQ Networks have five people dedicated to the project, who assist CCT in all their installations, "Central to the effective running of any network solution is hands on back-up and support. It is reassuring to know that any potential mishaps we may have, can be dealt with in one phone call. Additionally PQ Networks and African Technology Holdings (ATH) have jointly won the CCT tender for the supply, installation and maintenance of networking equipment for the next two years. This will ensure the continued support of the CCT network," concludes van Rensburg.
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PQ Africa
PQ Africa is SA`s leading provider of competitive, innovative and flexible business solutions based on Information and Communication Technology ("ICT"). PQ Africa`s networking division, PQ Networks (PQN) has become the foremost network systems integrator and solutions provider in South Africa.
PQN has established an enviable track record in providing world leading networking solutions encompassing both the wide and local area environs. This incorporates all aspects in the communication technology arena, from Telecommunications infrastructure and Virtual Private Networks to Internet technology and all the related services.
Through direct representation of the world`s top network product manufacturers PQN provides through effective sales and pre-sales qualification processes, the most appropriate technology and design to meet the customer`s business requirements. PQN is actively supplying competitive and innovative solutions to diverse industries such as finance, retail, insurance, telecommunications, manufacture, travel, utilities and government services.
With a support organisation employing spanning some 33 locations throughout Southern Africa, PQN have the capability to service and maintain the computer networks of companies in all market segments supporting differing geographical and service level requirements. This extensive support organisation and the sophisticated Customer Care Centre enable the outsourcing of network services, such as network management, network operations and maintenance, and bandwidth management.