Contact Information: Media Inquiries: Barbara Burgess Avaya 908-953-3348 barbarab@avaya.com Greg Cross Extreme Networks 408-579-3483 gcross@extremenetworks.com
Avaya Unified Communications and Extreme Network Infrastructure Help Iowa Valley Community College District Increase Customer Service, Productivity
| Source: Avaya Inc.
BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - September 9, 2008) - Iowa Valley Community College District,
which operates two community colleges and a satellite campus, is using unified communications
from Avaya and a high-performance
network infrastructure from Extreme Networks to link faculty, staff and
students across 15 buildings located within a 90-mile radius.
"Iowa Valley wanted to consolidate seven disparate phone systems and five
different voice mail systems to take advantage of the cost-saving and
productivity benefits of voice over IP," said Jim Wilson,
director of technology, Iowa Valley Community College District. "The
District also wanted to give its staff and faculty four-digit dialing
across locations, an online telephone directory, and mobility features so
they could be reached wherever they're working." Iowa Valley also needed a
better process to ensure performance and reliability for its busy, 24/7 web
site that students use to register for classes and apply for financial aid.
"The District achieved the capacity, redundancy, and security it needed,
including the ability to troubleshoot and monitor its own network and
handle similar tasks for all switches simultaneously, which saves time and
money," Wilson said.
Iowa Valley chose a communications system and software from Avaya, and a
high performance network foundation from Extreme Networks. Avaya provided
a comprehensive IP communications solution, including an Avaya S8720 Media
Server at the main site, with its IP telephony platform, Avaya
Communication Manager; Avaya S8300 Media Gateways at the remote campus
locations; Avaya Modular Messaging; and more than 400 Avaya IP phones.
Extreme Networks provided a complete, campus-wide network fashioned for
high availability, gigabit performance, and high reliability, based on its
portfolio of switches.
The District deployed Extreme Networks BlackDiamond® switches for its core,
more than 60 Summit® 450 stackable switches with Power over Ethernet (PoE)
at the network edge, and two Sentriant AG endpoint security devices for
network access control. With the new network in place, Iowa Valley has
become better capable of achieving uniform, simplified connectivity. All
employees use a centralized phone and voice mail system and four-digit
dialing to reach colleagues at any location. With the Avaya Extension to
Cellular feature of Communication Manager, calls that are bound for an
employee's business number ring simultaneously on both their office and
mobile phone, so employees can be reached wherever they are working and
still use advanced features such as "transfer" and "conference."
"Employees now can give out a single phone number," Wilson said. "They
also have one unified voice mail box, so they only need to check one place
for all their messages."
To help ensure customer service in its contact center, which manages calls
from students who need details on the curriculum as well as inquiries from
local businesses who may want to use the district's conference center
facilities, the district uses Avaya's "hunt group" capabilities. If one
line is busy, the system automatically searches for the next available
representative, so incoming calls are handled promptly.
The District's network was configured by Technology Solutions Group, a
certified member of the Avaya BusinessPartner program.
About Avaya
Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies
transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than 1
million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE
500®, use Avaya solutions for IP Telephony, Unified Communications,
Contact Centers and Communications-Enabled Business Processes. Avaya Global
Services provides comprehensive service and support for companies, small to
large. For more information visit the Avaya Web site: http://www.avaya.com.
About Extreme Networks
Extreme Networks designs, builds, and installs Ethernet infrastructure
solutions that solve the toughest business communications challenges. The
Company's commitment to open networking sets it apart from the alternatives
by delivering meaningful insight and unprecedented control to applications
and services. Extreme Networks believes openness is the best foundation for
growth, freedom, flexibility, and choice. Extreme Networks focuses on
enterprises and service providers who demand high performance, converged
networks that support voice, video and data, over a wired and wireless
infrastructure. For more information, visit:
http://www.extremenetworks.com