Case Study: Transforming Yesterday’s Technology into Today’s Solutions

The Challenge

A Texas university that’s known for research and engineering needed to engineer a solution that would bring their voice services up-to-date. They were still using the same PBX and analog phones that were installed during the first Bush Administration.

They wanted a more reliable, scalable and manageable solution. They wanted employees to have the ability to collaborate more easily through high-def video, unified messaging and instant messaging. They knew what they wanted, but didn’t know how to get it. That is, until they met with Netsync.

They knew what they wanted, but didn’t know how to get it. That is, until they met Netsync.

Communications, Collaboration, Cisco

After Netsync’s initial discovery phase, which included interviews, roundtables and workshops with key university personnel, Netsync knew the perfect solution would include its longtime, trusted partner Cisco. What the university wanted could be perfectly accommodated by Cisco’s Unified Communications (UC) solution, which can be accessed through on-premises software, hosted by a partner, or used as a service (UCaaS) through a cloud provider.

Netsync’s designed UC solution incorporated 2 Cisco BE7000 servers, which now empowers the university’s end users to engage and innovate anywhere, on any device and at any time. The Cisco Business Edition 7000 is an all-in-one, end-to-end collaboration solution designed for scalability to easily accommodate growth.

On both servers, Netsync loaded Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), which provides an integrated collaboration infrastructure for voice and video calling, messaging, and mobility. It provides reliable, secure, scalable, and manageable call control and session management. Cisco Instant Messaging and Presence (IM&P) was installed, which is a standards-based enterprise platform that brings people together in and across organizations in the most effective way. This open and extensible platform facilitates the highly secure exchange of presence and instant messaging (IM) information between Cisco Unified Communications and other applications.

In addition, Netsync installed:

Cisco Unity Connection (CUC), which allows users to access and manage messages from an email inbox, web browser, Cisco Jabber, and Cisco IP phones, smartphones or tablets. It provides flexible message access and delivery format options, including support for voice commands, speech-to-text transcription, and even video greetings.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX), an easy to deploy and manage contact center solution that provides a secure, available, and sophisticated contact center for up to 400 agents and IVR ports. 

Cisco Unified Attendant Console Advanced, which gives users the tools required to confidently, efficiently, and professionally tend to incoming calls. Within it, users see all console queue activity, shared active call notes, and informative call tags for held, recalled and parked calls.

Managed, Deployed, Tested and Trained

The entire deployment was managed by Netsync’s Project Management professionals, who utilize standard Project Management Institute (PMI) methodologies and processes. They provided a detailed, updated timeline that included accomplished tasks and deliverables, issue tracking, action items and reminders, and post-implementation technical documentation, including Visio diagrams illustrating the pre- and post- implementation designs.

Equipment was received at Netsync’s Labs, Staging and Logistics facility, where it was asset tagged and documented, with updates provided to project management and the university. Netsync professionals staged the entire solution, loading all applications and required configurations and firmware. They conducted burn-in testing to ensure each network asset was ready for deployment once it was received at the university. Once there, it was installed, deployed and tested by Netsync’s tenured field installation technicians.

In addition, Netsync provided training sessions to university employees to ensure they were comfortable using, and taking full advantage of, their new solution.

The Go-To Solutions Provider for Higher Ed

By always staying true to its collaborative and consultative business approach, Netsync has built a reputation as the go-to solutions provider for K-12 and higher education. The university now understands why. They had thought they just needed new hardware. What they needed was a solution. What they needed was Netsync.