Challenge
IBM, the world's leading outsourcer, was contracted to supply a next generation voice and data platform for a large retail bank in the UK. The bank wanted to achieve the following goals:
- Cut the support and maintenance cost of thousands of ‘end-of-life’ TDM-PBXs
- Reduce expensive IT support for voice services
- Access new and future IP-PBX / collaboration services, on demand
- Implement new standardized branch extension dial plan + multiple office dial plan variants
- Support hot-desking for staff, with 100% extension mobility
- Introduce real time MACs (moves, adds, changes), plus devolved administration and user self-care
IBM had a number of technical and architecture requirements that created many challenges, adding to the complexity of the design and transformation process, including:
- A carrier grade solution architecture to ensure that there was no single point of failure, including full geographic redundancy
- A distributed multi-cluster call control architecture, to lessen the impact of potential service outage by geography
- Complex TDM-PBX to IP-PBX interworking to ensure that branches could still communicate as they had always done, even as branches were being transformed from TDM over to IP
- Complex central gateway interconnect requirements and special mobile phone gateways
- Full cross cluster roaming for mobile workers, enabling hot desking at any branch
Solution
IBM selected Cisco’s large enterprise solution architecture, based on the PGW 2200 softswitch and Unified Communications Manager (UCM). This Cisco-certified, Cisco-tested, end-to-end architecture has a pre-integrated dial plan and fully integrated fulfillment management platform that is provided by VOSS.
VOSS delivers full automation of the Cisco IPT network infrastructure configuration, as well as the service delivery and management of all IPT and new UC services. VOSS is particularly suited to this challenge as it also facilitates the automation of the data migration process, which is a key part of the overall transformation project.
Benefits
- Speed of Deployment
This was the fastest known rollout of a large enterprise IPT platform. 2,400 branches were rolled-out in 9 months, and cut deployment time from 2 years to 9 months - Operational Efficiencies
During deployment, the VOSS solution reduced the headcount required by IBM by 40%, and post-transformation help-desk calls were 60% less than predicted - Cross Cluster Mobility
VOSS enables every staff memeber to log in to their phone no matter which branch they are working. This ensures that requests to the NOC and helpdesk for MACs have been radically reduced - Response to Change
VOSS provides the foundations for the client to grow its business, enabling a rapid response to change, and an effective management of costs
