"The council staff can manage adds, moves and changes themselves.  This means there is less reliance on our IT resources and outside contractors.  The Council has saved a lot of money by taking the right approach."  Neil Taylor, IS Manager

Challenge

The council is situated in the northern region of rural Victoria.  It has around 400 staff and 21 sites.

IT Environment

The council had an ageing PABX.  They wanted to make a long-term investment in their upgrade that would grow with them.  Generation-e responded to their tender with a robust, supported, reliable, non-Windows® based system that is easily self-managed and flexible, enabling adds, moves & changes. They now have 21 sites in Wangaratta connected together with a common phone system.  All inter-office phone calls are now free.

Solution

3Com NBX VoIP phone system (400 handsets), 3Com Gigabit Network, and Tipping Point Intrusion Prevention System (IPS).

3com NBX was the most cost-effective system with a diverse range of features.  It represents excellent value for money.  They save money on their inter-office calls and on IT support costs, being able to self-manage the system.

The 3Com IPS provides advanced intrusion prevention for both the voice and data.  It stops attacks before they enter the network and protects against future attacks.  The IT staff also saves time not having to do emergency or ad-hoc patching when a new threat is detected,

The 3Com Gigabit Network was chosen for its advanced security, Quality of Service (voice), and power over Ethernet.  Essentially the phones are powered by the network.  This means they don’t need their own power packs nor does the office need extra power points.  So the staff can plug in a handset or PC anywhere and it will work.  This flexible and reliable solution is truly a long-term investment and will support future growth.

Business Impact

The network and phones will serve the council for approximately 10 years.  The phone system is able to expand to a total capacity of 7,500 devices.