Johannesburg, 02 Jul 1999
The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has invested in an ISDN-based PABX from Philips Business Communications (PBC) to ensure optimum communications well into the next century.
The bank works with donors and other partners on international, national and provincial levels to build relationships with all its key-role players in development, and to promote the best possible use of resources to reach the goals of development initiatives.
"To achieve this we need a communications system that will give our 500-odd users the ability to take advantage of all the recent developments in multimedia communications, one that is scaleable and cost effective," says Graham Tate, manager of information and technology services at the DBSA.
"Prior to the implementation of the Philips iS3000 PABX the bank had spent a great deal renting and maintaining the old system. After much deliberation they determined the money spent on the older analogue PABX on an annual basis could be better spent purchasing a new system," says Harry Plugge, GM Sales at Philips Business Communications (PBC).
Tate says, as the bank does not have regional offices (it works out of a single building in Midrand), it is always looking for ways to use data integration technologies, such as CTI and multimedia voice over data (video conferencing) for improved functionality and management of communications to add value to the way it does business.
"We bought the instruments and switch, but only maintain the switch and carry a stock of equipment to replace broken instruments," says Tate. The installation of the cabling was facilitated by long-standing PBC partner, Expercable.
"The bank issued an RFP as we were not sure what was out there. What was clear is that we wanted a technical partner, one we could grow with," says Tate.
"We were also keen to get our hands on DECT technology as technical, support and administration staff freely wonder around the building. With DECT it is easy to track their whereabouts and contact them regardless of their location whereas in the past we used pagers and were never sure of their whereabouts or if they got the message," he adds.
The uniqueness of the PBC implementation was the integration of the DECT handsets with the PABX. "Other vendors had them as stand alone systems and, when you look at where DECT is going into the next century, these cannot be seen as elegant solutions," says Tate. "We are looking to PBC to merge DECT with GSM technology so we can move about with a single instrument. GSM can be used as backup and if an employee is away from the network he is still available."
Additional benefits include the ability to install new phones without having to reroute telephone extensions - a costly and time consuming exercise, "this can be an administrative nightmare," he says.
Staff are issued with a DECT terminal and handset linked to the PABX and all they have to do is move into their new office. "In the past it took a week-and-a-half to accomplish this, now we do it in less than a day," says Tate.
In light of the trend to integrate voice over data a decision was taken to adopt ISDN-based - which is well suited to video conferencing - which will assist project leaders to save time and money, rather, than spending it on travelling. Video conferencing capabilities are tightly integrated into the PABX and the data network. It can be done from desktops across the LAN to a WAN.
The bank is also reaping benefits from the integration of voice mail from the PABX. "This is now available via e-mail giving us fax, data and voice capabilities through a single application interface to minimise training."
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world`s biggest electronics companies, with sales of over US$39 billion in 1997. It is a global leader in colour television sets, lighting, home telephony products and electric shavers.
Its 264 700 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of semiconductors and components, consumer products, professional products and systems, lighting and software and services. Philips is quoted on the NYSE, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.news.philips.com.
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