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Case In Point
Voxsys Communications Balances Alert Life Sciences' Load, Budget
How a multi-location international corporation gained a common phone system that creates communication efficiencies and allows for cost-effective expansion
Alert Life Science Computing S.A., located in a nine story building, had enjoyed rapid growth and needed to replace its current phone system with one that could streamline communications between different segments of the company. Like many companies they sought a solution that would give them ease of communication while maintaining a professional image. They also needed the flexible system that would allow them to easily add new employees.
Specific Requirements:
- The ability to link to their current telephone network (PSTN)
- The ability to smoothly integrate with one receptionist, 5 departmental secretaries and 12 fax machines throughout a nine story building
- The ability to continue to expand current user capacity (now up to 200 users) without having to purchase additional expensive hardware as the company grows
- The ability to add mobile DECT phones (Digital European Telecommunication) as well as the combined Wi-Fi/GSM phones requested by some users. (This type of phone can switch between different types of networks to accommodate availability.)
 VoIP and Voxsys
Alert’s board of directors felt that using a VoIP system would help them with all of the above goals while taking advantage of the newest available technology. They turned to Voxsys Communications, one of Portugal’s leading telecom consultancies, to guide them through this process to a successful conclusion.
Nuno Laranjo, Managing Director of Voxsys RSCE had these comments about Alert’s situation: “For an organization this size, communications represent a significant cost and I wanted them to have the best value for their money while still providing them with the crucial features that would enhance their business activities.”
Laranjo also stressed the need for ease of scalability with Alert’s system. “I have seen companies make the mistake of selecting a system that was expensive to expand as growth required. I did not want Alert to experience this, so I recommended Quadro IP PBX’s and gateways from Epygi Technologies.”
Solution Elements and Installation
Deployed equipment included:
- 1 Quadro E1 Gateway to connect to the PSTN network
- 7 Quadro 16xi IP-PBXs, 1 per floor
- 8 Quadro ISDN gateways
- 8 GSM 2 channel gateways connected to the ISDN trunks, connected to the Quadro 16xi’s for Low Cost Routing outbound GSM calls
- 1 Aastra 57i plus additional key extension pad, for the receptionist
- 5 Grandstream GXP2010 IP phones, for each secretary
- 5 Cisco 79xx series phones, for the board members
- 43 Siemens DECT phones
- 40 Grandstreams GXP1200 IP phones
- 5 Grandstream GXP2020 IP phones
- 20 Polycom SP 330 IP phones
- Several Softphones
Installation took place over a period of 4 days with 2 technicians working with the facilities staff .The installation was relatively straightforward as the system and phones could mostly be auto-configured. The fact that Epygi’s products are compatible with all major makes of IP and analog telephones added to the ease of the process.
The New System in Action
All inbound calls from the PSTN (more than 500 per day) are directed to the Alert receptionist, except for calls for departments that have direct numbers. These calls are automatically transferred to the corresponding secretary.
The Quadros were programmed for the most efficient, ‘least-cost’ call routing and so they automatically handle all the outgoing calls according to rules established by Alert. This means that all outbound national land calls (around 500 per day) are forwarded to the Quadro E1 which puts them directly into the PSTN. International outbound calls (over 100 per day) go out over IP, through the Quadro 16xi’s, to an international Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP).
 Calls to national mobile networks (at least 200 per day) are directed via the gateways dedicated to mobile GSM. An important benefit of having a dedicated GSM gateway linked to each Quadro 16xi is that the system can automatically balance call loads by spreading the outbound mobile calls between the various gateways. In addition, staffs that are out of the office and on the road can use the GSM gateways to make national land and international calls from their mobiles, giving huge call savings.
Internal, extension-to-extension calls are forwarded according to Alert’s standardized, 3-digit extension numbering plan. Every floor as an extension number plan so, for example, all the extensions on the 3rd floor follow the form ‘3-x-x’. All the Quadro 16xi IP-PBXs can route calls between internal extensions to the other Quadro 16xi’s with all services available.
Instant and Ongoing Benefits
The Board Directors were given the Cisco 79xx series phones, which are Wi-Fi capable. They have their extension configured to these mobiles and so they can use them when on and off-site via a UMTS service. This means their extension is always available, an essential facility in the current business climate.
All the Quadro 16xi IP-PBXs work together, behaving as one telephone system. This gives several advantages. Call loads and simultaneous data traffic can be shared ensuring the highest quality of service. In addition, this combined structure creates a very reliable fail-over system by using DNS names on the proxy registration parameter on the phones.
Even though this new system has only been in use for a few months so far, Alert Sciences is already seeing a big improvement in the company’s work flow and call costs. The directors have found their new Wi-Fi capable mobile phones a valuable new business tool. The ability of out of office staff to make mobile phone calls through the office system is seen as a great benefit.
The company reports that the automatic call routing is working perfectly. Because the software on the Quadros enables all the calls to be tracked, they are able to analyze in detail the costs and compare them with what we would have spent using the old system. The savings made on international and mobile phone costs will easily cover the cost to upgrade to the new system.
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