RGTS Enterprise Tools Help Small- and Medium-size Companies Compete
Japan Society gets a boost with powerful VoIP and Internet services from RGTS
Powerful enterprise tools, such as advanced VoIP telephone service, high-speed Internet access, structured building cabling, sophisticated call centers, flexible, easily updated auto attendants, and multiple backup layers that assure solid reliability, are often thought out of reach of medium- and small-size companies, due to staffing and cost constraints.
But as one case study illustrates, these tools are also within reach of small- and medium-size businesses as well as large enterprises, via Rockefeller Group Technology Solutions, Inc. Further, the flexibility and custom tailoring RGTS offers, both in technology implementations and in service structuring, enable small and medium businesses to command enterprise service values.
Japan Society is a nonprofit organization employing fewer than 100 people at the five-story building it owns and occupies on Manhattan's East Side, across from the United Nations headquarters. There, RGTS recently designed and installed a comprehensive system for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone service and Internet access.
Japan Society's communications services are hosted and driven by the powerful carrier-level infrastructure RGTS has disbursed among several secure Class-A properties. The hosted approach affords Japan Society its enterprise-level services while sparing the organization the capital equipment and staffing costs that make such services prohibitive for small and medium businesses.
After the installation was completed in the summer of 2008, Juan Montes, vice president and CIO of Japan Society, wrote to John Tarduno, president and CEO of RGTS, "I want to let you know how pleased I and the rest of the Japan Society management team are with our new phone system and with how RGTS ran the project. What I can say without exaggeration is that you have excellent people... I found them to be top-notch professionals who cared deeply about doing a good job."
New Cabling Accepts PCs or IP Phones at Any Port, Instantly
RGTS's service installation began with a structured re-cabling of Japan Society's entire building. Each work station was outfitted with three Category-6 communication ports. Each port accepts and serves a VoIP phone, a PC, or a network printer instantly. There is no distinction between VoIP phone ports and LAN ports, nor is any VoIP telephone extension number configured for any specific port. The programmed extension numbers, call coverage paths, and feature configurations reside within the individual VoIP telephone sets. So, an individual can plug his or her phone at any time into any port within the building. This service feature offers significant new flexibility while reducing administrative burdens.
The cables for all the ports converge in one of two communications closets in the building. A cabling patch panel in each closet permits discrete management of any specific port, if desired. This configuration easily permits several selected ports to be configured to support analog fax machines and a legacy building security system.
In an initial facility assessment, RGTS and Japan Society determined that the building's existing cabling could not meet the organization's needs for service performance and flexibility. RGTS then configured and installed a completely new cabling system for the building, without disrupting the daily operations or existing cabling within the building, and without being stymied by the absence of a core communication riser shaft extending through the entire building.
Advanced VoIP Telephone Service, Faster Internet Access
RGTS's VoIP telephone service features the Avaya 9640 IP phone set, which provides high-fidelity audio, a large high-resolution color display, and intuitive one-touch access to key features of the powerful Avaya Communication Manager system. The IP telephones and the system driving them offer a new generation of advanced performance features and broad flexibility to integrate with PC and data applications. These new features and integration capabilities are described in other RGTS Connections articles on VoIP telephone service.
RGTS configured 142 telephone extensions for Japan Society, including 93 with Avaya 9640 IP phone sets. Other extensions are main numbers for the Society's departments, such as Programs, Ticket Office, Gallery, Development, Toyota Language Center, and Education. Several pilot extension numbers support a sophisticated Automated Attendant application. Twenty extensions and cable ports are configured as analog lines for fax machines and analog telephones.
Today, Internet access bandwidth is now twice the previous maximum speed. It can be scaled on demand in precise increments up to 100 Mbps. RGTS allows clients to purchase the right bandwidth they require.
Sophisticated Call Center, Flexible Auto Attendant
RGTS cost-effectively configured a sophisticated call center application to distribute incoming calls among four or five Japan Society staff members. The introduction of the call center system, including statistical call reporting, has proved to be a significant productivity and convenience benefit to the organization.
RGTS also replaced an existing cumbersome and inflexible Auto Attendant used to answer and route incoming calls when the receptionist was unavailable. The new version that RGTS configured is significantly better and easier to manage. Japan Society staff members are now able to update their new Auto Attendant's recorded messages and menu selections quickly and easily to keep pace with the organization's constantly changing calendar of programs, performances, and gallery exhibits.
Multiple Backup Layers Assure Reliability
The reliability and resiliency of Japan Society's new service, like that of virtually all RGTS clients, is, by careful design, extraordinarily high. A failure along any primary trunk line or at any central processor would be transparent to Japan Society staff members. Active redundant trunk lines and processors are ready to take over in milliseconds, too quickly for any voice call or data transfer to be interrupted. Failure tests performed on the new system proved its resilience.
Japan Society's hosted voice and Internet traffic flows across RGTS's carrier-grade Transport Service on a private dedicated point-to-point fiber optic circuit using infrastructure that is completely independent of the ILEC, or incumbent local exchange carrier. That traffic flows through RGTS's core network, where hosted services are monitored 24/7/365 by RGTS's Network Operations Center staff. RGTS's core network has redundant processors in physically remote buildings, as well as multiple, physically diverse paths to the switched public telephone network and to the Internet.
To provide a backup to the fiber optic link between Japan Society and RGTS's network core, RGTS configured alternative links to the switched public telephone network and to the Internet. The alternative is a stand-alone backup switch at Japan Society's offices, which connects to central office trunk lines leased from the ILEC. In failure tests performed on this configuration, the backup system took over without any perceptible interruption to active telephone calls and Internet connections within Japan Society offices.
Flexible, Creative Service Tailoring
Distinct from, but complementary to, delivering the industry's highest level of technology performance and reliability, RGTS is committed to working flexibly and creatively to tailor its service to the specific needs of each client.
After first meeting with Japan Society executives in the fall of 2007 to examine service needs and possible solutions, RGTS returned a month later with a detailed service proposal tailored to the Society's needs. The two organizations then collaborated to revise and refine service details until Japan Society was fully comfortable with its new service features and terms. As cable and equipment installations got under way early in 2008, RGTS readily accommodated additional service requests and refinements, while working flexibly to remain within the Society's budget and cost constraints.
In concluding his letter, Japan Society vice president and CIO Juan Montes wrote, "[RGTS] very thoughtfully crafted a deal that I am confident will turn into a long and fruitful relationship."
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