VoIP Case Study: Life-Sciences
Life-Sciences is a medical solution provider in Europe that covers different activities, such as: cryogenics, stem cell therapies and export & delivery of all kinds of pharmaceutical products. The Life-Sciences group has subsidiaries in over 25 countries and is headquartered in Belgium.
The Challenge
Along with other international offices, the Belgian offices of the group are expanding rapidly. Having needed to increase available office space multiple times over the last few years, Life-Sciences was looking for a telephony system that could keep pace with the rapid growth of the company. Life-Sciences was still running the incumbent operator's (Belgacom) provided PBX, and the switch to a VoIP based PBX was easily decided.
The project also serves as a pilot for a much larger international approach, including different international subsidiaries of the group and the customer center based in the Netherlands. Some international subsidiaries already communicate using Linugen's Packetnet service and they will become integral part of the total solution.
The Solution
For the pilot project, Linugen installed a book-sized computer running Sipcat software equipped with a four port ISDN Basic Access interface card, connecting the office to two ISDN lines and providing connectivity for the company's different phone numbers. Additionally Sipcat connects via SIP to the Packetnet VoIP provider for low rate outbound calls and free calls between offices connected using analog telephone adapters (ATA).
The ten employees all use Linksys SPA-921 IP phones, which were chosen for their crystal clear sound quality, easy to read display and intuitive menu settings. Two more analog adapters are used to connect the wireless DECT phones used in the laboratory to the Sipcat IP telephony system.
The Response
Linugen provided the initial configuration for the telephony software, but thanks to the intuitive interface the system administrator and the employees can easily modify the configuration of the sytem, even remotely. User training was virtually zero, because Life-Sciences employees immediately picked up the daily usage of the provided IP phones. Because Sipcat automatically configures the IP phones, local modifications to the phone's configuration are never necessary.
Voice quality on the network is crystal clear using the original network configuration, no special modifications were needed. However, the company is ready to provide a dedicated DSL connection for voice traffic when the need arises, thanks to the load balancing router also provided by Linugen. The entire switch to the new system was done during office hours and the downtime was less than an hour.
Marc Waeterschoot, CEO of Life-Sciences puts it like this "For us, Sipcat is today's solution for tomorrow's communication". We couldn't have said it better.
