* Networks First and Neptune Consultancy Partner to Bring Winning Combination of Network Skills and Knowledge *

Introduction - Client

One of the world's leading manufacturers of rolling bearings, automotive components and Mechatronic products. Turnover of 5 billion euro and employing more than 23,000 people worldwide.

The Project

Based on the company’s philosophy of always offering clients added value consultancy whenever possible, Andy Heath, the project manager at Neptune Consultancy decided to approach this client with a recommendation to consider upgrading their network to incorporate an IP telephony solution.

Heath explains: “From working with this client for a number of years we had come to appreciate that the company had a highly mobile workforce and a large volume of both national and international calls. Having seen its network develop with a good, strong infrastructure, Neptune felt that extending this to incorporate IP telephony would bring them huge business benefits and cost savings.”

Neptune Consultancy decided to take a collaborative approach to the project, bringing in its support services partner, Networks First.  Together they proposed a powerful business case for IP Telephony, explaining how it could be implemented, the cost savings that could be achieved and the benefits it would bring to the organisation.

Heath says: “We always look to partner with organisations that compliment and strengthen our own offerings. Networks First has some of the most highly experienced engineers in the industry backed up by an inventory in excess of £4.5m and a two-hour spares delivery guarantee.  Combine this with their enthusiastic and committed approach to working in partnership and we felt that together we could really offer the best solution and service possible.”  

The client’s lead project manager comments: “We decided that the business case for IP Telephony did sound compelling and put the implementation out to tender in March 2007.  Following a competitive pitch with four of the other UK’s leading network consultants, we decided to award Neptune and Networks First the project in May 2007.  We felt confident that they really knew our business and had carefully researched and drawn together a solution that would best fit our company’s individual IT and business needs to take us forward in to the future. In fact, we were so confident in our choice of solution and provider, it led us to awarding the first ever five-year maintenance contract in our history.” 

The Solution

Neptune Consultancy took the lead role in the project, managing the design and proof of concept as well as the overall implementation whilst Networks First took responsibility for the ongoing installation support, monitoring and maintenance.

Working closely with Networks First, Neptune had recommended a solution based on the Cisco Unified Communications system, including Cisco Call Manager 5.1 and Cisco Unity. 

Cisco Call Manager 5.1 is a highly scalable enterprise IP telephony call processing solution that includes a host-based firewall as well as IP Security (IPsec) connectivity between all cluster members. Multiple Cisco Unified CallManager servers are clustered and managed as a single entity on an IP network, a distinctive capability that yields scalability of up to 30,000 IP phones per cluster, load balancing, and call-processing service redundancy.    
Cisco Unity comprises a Windows 2000 based communications solution that delivers voice mail and unified messaging in a unified environment.  This means that users can manage all message types from the same Inbox and are able to access voice and e-mail messages on a PC, through a touchtone phone or over the Internet.

Phase one of the installation began in September 2007 with Call Manager 5.1 and unity connections for voicemail across seven UK sites and one European site in Stuttgart, Germany to support a total of 800 users.  The first of the UK sites will go/went live only two months after the implementation began in November 2007 and the last site is expected to be up and running by Spring 2008.

The Future

“Previously we had a number of disparate multi-vendor systems across our different sites.  This lack of uniformity caused compatibility issues and also made it expensive to run. The new solution will form the foundations for a reliable standard across our business and bring real business continuity benefits as well as reduced training costs for maintenance and management of our systems.  It will also mean that our factory sites will have the option of one centralised reception for incoming calls, providing a far more professional front of house for our customers.

“The business benefits are very clear for all to see. The new solution will really drive the costs of our telephone system down as we will be paying a local call rate for all our national and international calls. This means real cost savings for a company with such a highly mobile workforce who will now be able to make calls via their laptops wherever they are located that day.  Significant cost savings will also be made from the least cost routing that will now apply to all our internal calls.”

Following the success of the European project, US counterparts are now planning to upgrade their system. The client also has the option of extending the solution to its other sites beyond the UK, with the potential to incorporate a further seven countries, each with multiple factory locations.

In conclusion the client explained: “Neptune and Networks First really act like an extension of our workforce – we feel able to trust them to manage our communications whilst we concentrate on our business and our customers.  By proactively coming to us with the recommendation for this project, Neptune has provided real added value to our business – and that’s what you want from any partner!”