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NEC Philips IP solution for Northumbria University
03/04/07
Northumbria
University has purchased two UNIVERGE SV7000 IP server blades from
NEC Philips Unified Solutions. The University is a long-standing
customer and partner of NEC Philips, and has established an
excellent working relationship.
The new
communications systems are part of a major £100 Million plus
Newcastle City Centre estate development being undertaken by the
University. This includes a plan to migrate to a Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications infrastructure which will
support the voice communications for around 600 members of staff in
three of Northumbria's schools on the new Newcastle City Centre
Campus East. The University will 'go-live' with the new system in
September, in time for the start of the new academic year.
The
University, which recently won 'The most IT enabled organisation'
award at the Computing Awards for excellence, has recently acquired
a new seven acre site adjacent to the existing City Centre Campus
and this has provided the opportunity to create new buildings and to
refurbish and refocus the existing ones. The intention is to create
a unified City Campus to match and underpin the University's vision
for the future. The first major stage of campus development will be
completed by September 2007, and three schools, Design, Business and
Law will be relocated there.
Ray Jenkins,
IT Services Infrastructure Manager at Northumbria University
explains, "The further investment required due to the creation of a
new site, gave us the ideal opportunity to re-evaluate our
communications strategy. As an organisation we are keen to keep
abreast with, and where possible utilise the latest technology.
Despite already having a very reliable communications network, this
project provides us with a chance to exploit the enormous potential
and flexibility that VoIP can offer."
Ray continues,
"We piloted alternative systems but the NEC Philips solution was the
one which had the best fit with our requirements. With the NEC
Philips offering we were able to continue using our current DECT
handsets and have consequently been spared the considerable cost we
would have incurred had we had to refresh our old handset base. In
addition, the UNIVERGE SV7000 gives us a very flexible number
portability solution, meaning we can easily move individuals
throughout the network. With a network the size of ours, this is a
very important consideration."
At present,
the University's telephone exchange resides in a building that does
not belong to the University and that is currently being completely
refurbished. The new communications infrastructure is a further step
towards eliminating a potential vulnerability. By having two
exchange locations, the University will gain extra resilience and
will have another fail safe back up facility.
Commenting on
the benefits that the University expects to achieve with the
migration to VoIP Jenkins explains, "VoIP will enable us to reduce
the excess cabling in the office by converging voice and data
networks and this will lead to considerable cost savings. We are
also looking forward to the benefit VoIP provides in terms of
additional mobility. The ability to work remotely will improve
accessibility for employees."
The University
is also keen to exploit Unified Communications - using thin client
technology and server-based applications to deliver rich
communications functionality to the desktop and to mobile users.
Commenting on
the relationship with the University of Northumbria, Chris de Silva,
UK Managing Director of NEC Philips concludes, "Northumbria
University is a long-standing customer and partner of NEC Philips
and we have an excellent working relationship with them. The
University is determined to keep abreast with the latest technology
and has aptly identified the enormous benefits that IP telephony and
unified communications can bring. Its receipt of an accolade at the
Computing Awards this year underlines the University's ability to
innovate in a strategic manner."
NEC Philips
Unified Solutions (NEC Philips) is a global systems integrator
focused on communications technology, headquartered in Hilversum,
Netherlands and with its UK head office in Cambridge. NEC Philips
is a 60:40 joint venture between NEC Corporation of Japan and Royal
Philips Electronics.
With an annual
turnover in the region of EUR200 million and 1000 employees, NEC
Philips is the European arm of the global NEC communications
business which is ranked 2nd in the worldwide enterprise
NEC Philips is
a Microsoft Gold Partner specialising in Unified Communications (UC)
- the convergence of IT and Communications to provide real-time
collaboration solutions delivering rich functionality - to small,
medium and large enterprises in the private and public sectors.
Nick Gibson, editor
© Copyright Screen-Studio.com
2007
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