Pneumatics engineering company, Festo, has invested around R1,4 million in a Voice Over IP (VoIP) wide area network and a Lucent Definity switch from Spescom Limited subsidiary, Spescom DataFusion.
Brendan Lambourne, IT manager at Festo, says the decision to implement VoIP technology arose during an exercise to upgrade the old routers on the company's nationwide network, to cater for Y2K.
"By implementing VoIP technology, we realised that we could substantially reduce our operating costs on the WAN that handled voice and data traffic between Festo's eight branch offices and our head office in Isando," he notes.
After a four-month tendering process, Festo chose a Cisco technology based solution from Spescom DataFusion, Cisco's first Advanced Technology Partner in Africa, credited with the largest number of installed VoIP sites in South Africa.
As part of the contract, Spescom DataFusion also replaced an older, non-Y2K compliant PABX at Festo's head office with a Lucent Definity switch.
A major reason for Festo's decision to choose Spescom DataFusion as its technology supplier was that all future upgrades to the Cisco routers would be software-based, making them highly cost-effective, according to Lambourne.
"In addition, Spescom DataFusion offered excellent after-sales service, including training," he adds.
Major benefits of the new WAN, which was restructured to include a high level of built-in redundancy, include improved quality of data access and ease of maintenance and trouble-shooting.
"While we still have to perfect the quality of our voice traffic - possibly by increasing the line speed on our current 64K leased Diginet lines - people are largely happy with their voice communications across the network," he says.
While studies have not yet been completed, Lambourne predicts that Festo's new VoIP network will reduce telephone bills on inter-branch traffic by between one-third to as much as 50 percent.
Festo's new Definity switch, which easily integrates into the voice over traffic network, has also been well received, he notes. "Because it is all software-driven, it is easy to change configurations or add new extensions to the network.
"While users still have to be fully trained on the full set of features, people are already enjoying new capabilities to, for example, leave voice mail and reroute calls to their cellphones."
Service from Spescom DataFusion has been excellent, he notes. "They have always been there when we need them and their training sessions are very thorough.
"In addition, it took two technicians - one of theirs and one of ours - just two weeks to implement the entire countrywide network. "
While Spescom DataFusion is currently providing first level support, Lambourne is confident that the skills will be rapidly transferred to Festo staff to enable them to take this over.
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Spescom Limited
Spescom Limited is an investment holding company with operations in the USA, UK and South Africa.
Core business is recognised to be the development and marketing of eBusiness enabling software driven solutions for the world market.
The group's strategic focus is on the convergence of knowledge, document, product data and voice transaction management technologies.
The Spescom Group also holds the controlling interest in USA based, Altris Software Inc.
In South Africa, Spescom, in alliance with world leading companies such as Cisco and Lucent Technologies, provides a range of customer contact and intelligent network solutions to its blue-chip customer base.
The company is a leading supplier of communications solutions and products to network operators and service providers on the African continent. This is achieved via strategic partnerships with major telecommunications equipment manufacturers including Quante Pouyet/3M, ADC, WWG and Fluke.
Via a joint venture with Siemens, Spescom is the worlds leading supplier of revenue management solutions based on its patented keypad technology for the electricity pre-payment market. These systems are installed in 42 countries around the globe.