FedGroup cuts costs with Think IT Solutions Cisco IP telephony project

FedGroup Financial Services recently teamed up with ICT service and support specialists, Think IT Solutions, to implement a new Cisco IP telephony solution.

The solution is comprised primarily of two components - equipment for a local area network (LAN) with a switching infrastructure as well as a voice component.

Prior to the installation, FedGroup had an analogue PABX system. This system was aging and becoming increasingly unreliable. By upgrading its system, FedGroup sought to cut costs, improve security, offer new features and in addition, integrate its voice and data infrastructure. Call reporting was also one of the key considerations.

According to FedGroup's IT Manager, Stephan Bestbier, one of the main objectives was to ensure the upgraded system could be maintained and administrated by internal IT staff.

After analysing a number of options, FedGroup decided on the Cisco telephony solution, which Think IT proposed and recommended at a very competitive price. Although other products like "Open Voice" and "Mytel" were considered, Cisco was chosen by FedGroup because of its reputation as the worldwide leader in network equipment.

Furthermore: "The Cisco LAN switch is designed to extend the value of the network throughout the infrastructure," explains Think IT Solutions director, Dominic Oettl. "It ensures network availability to maximise uptime and to deliver consistent support for real-time applications. In addition, it integrates security to protect, mitigate and recover from network attacks. And VOIP is also obviously attractive for its cost-effectiveness."

Think IT has always offered market-leading solutions on a host of different and scalable platforms and was tasked with rolling out the solution at branch level. While planning required a month, the actual installation took place over a weekend, ensuring that FedGroup would be up and running on the Monday morning without any downtime.

Think IT Solutions did not only complete this task smoothly, but has also guided FedGroup through the process of registering and logging calls as well as assisting in the swapping out of faulty equipment.

Bestbier concludes: "The support that FedGroup has received from Think IT Solutions on an ongoing basis has been superb. Think IT consistently finds better solutions for our business needs. They have a wide knowledge base and partnerships with various information technology providers, making working with them a pleasure."