New Zealand’s newest university – the AUT University – is based at a main campus in central Auckland but also has numerous smaller sites – in Mangere, Manukau, Penrose, Akoranga and elsewhere – around the city.

IT staff at the university had been considering switching to a VoIP system since 2001, but before the VoIP system went live in July 2005, the university’s 1,700-plus staff were using a proprietary digital phone system with an in-house PABX.

“Because the old system was ageing and would have required significant capital expenditure to upgrade, we decided to look at our options,” says AUT University’s telephone systems manager Gina Robinson. Going with VoIP also meant AUT University would only need one, instead of two, WAN connections with remote sites. “With the old system we had to organise distant extensions over Telecom’s phone network to link with some remote sites,” she says.

AUT University was keen to build on its existing relationship with Logical  – a network integration company acquired by IBM in 2004. Being a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, IBM was also able to get attractive prices for Cisco products.

Easier to manage
One of the other major benefits for AUT University of moving to a VoIP system is the fact that the system can be largely maintained and modified by AUT University’s IT staff.

“The skill set required to do phone system changes is the same skill set for managing the data network, so IT staff here can look after the phone system,” says MacLeod. “With the Cisco system, when someone moves to a new location they can simply plug their phone into the network and it finds the CallManager itself.

This creates operational cost savings because we don’t have to outsource moves, adds and changes to the phone system,” says AUT University’s IT strategy manager Callum MacLeod.

Cisco NZ country manager David Barker says this feature allows organisations such as AUT University to virtualise their contact centres. “This means contact centre staff don’t all have to be sitting in the same room. They can be anywhere and the call will find them wherever they are.” The VoIP system uses the same protocols as the data network and consolidates with AUT University’s LAN. If there are network problems having a single vendor reduces the cost and stops the buck-passing that can go on when multiple vendors are resolving problems.

“The distributed nature of the VoIP system also effectively disaster-proofs AUT University’s telephone services. With the old system there was a single point of failure and if, for example, there was fire in the building where it was housed, there would be major disruptions to phone services,” says MacLeod. “But IP services are distributed. We now have CallManagers in three different locations, each of which is able to handle the total number of phones we have.”

AUT University uses a third party Contact Centre solution, voicemail and call logging for re-charging. “The Cisco VoIP technology integrated very easily with these other systems,” says MacLeod. “In future, scaling the system up and adding new applications will be easier.”

AUT University will be able to choose from technology from Cisco’s more than 100 partners, which will integrate seamlessly with its VoIP system.  “We create an ecosystem around our technology with a host of companies building applications that work with our product solutions,” says Barker.

“It allows us to roll out new services at any time. That’s really important because traditional PABX providers operate in a very closed environment.” MacLeod agrees. “With our old system we were basically locked into using just Ericsson products.”

Phones that do more
“The new IP phones that AUT University staff are now using offer vast improvements in functionality. All staff members now have access to a global address book listing everyone in the organisation and where they are located,” says Robinson.

“Like mobiles, the IP phones offer predictive dialling so users can just tap in the first few letters of someone’s name when calling them.” Also offered is call history such as missed calls, placed calls and dialled numbers in addition to caller display which was previously only available on some phones. “It’s definitely a step up for most of our staff,” says Robinson.

Moving forward with VoIP, AUT University will allow video telephony and also remote logging onto AUT University’s phone system from home or anywhere in the world.

“An AUT University staff member travelling in the US for example, would be able to plug an IP phone or headset into his or her laptop and connect with the AUT University phone system,” says Robinson.

A quick and painless implementation
MacLeod and Robinson say they were very impressed with the speed and ease with which AUT University was able to switch to VoIP.

“After doing the business case in August 2004, we decided we would go with Cisco VoIP but it took us until February 2005 to get executive approval. We placed our order at the end of February and went live just over four months later on 4 July” says MacLeod. No mean feat considering the size of the implementation and all the integration work that needed to be done.

“We didn’t think it was possible to do it that fast. We were very happy with the speed and relative painlessness of the experience,” says MacLeod.

According to IBM’s AUT University account manager, Richard Lockwood, the VoIP implementation was one of the biggest IBM had undertaken in New Zealand. “VoIP implementations are getting easier over time,” he says.

For more information contact
IBM
www.ibm.co.nz

February 2007