International technology distributor Zycko Ltd. has helped countless firms throughout Europe deploy IP-based telephony solutions. So when it came for the company to update its own phone network, it knew exactly where it wanted to go.

When replacing its aging PBX (News - Alert), Zycko went with a known combination that has served its clients well: the Microsoft Lync unified communications platform coupled with snom 821 UC edition phones, according to the snom blog.

“With 50+ employees in the company, obviously telephone systems are very important to us,” said Darren Sheppard in a YouTube (News - Alert) video on the phone system upgrade, vendor solutions manager for Zycko. “We’ve started using the snom Lync phones, and we’ve found that it is a major benefit to our business.”

Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync is an enterprise-ready unified communications platform that keeps track of contact availability and allows users to send instant messages, start or join audio, video or web conferences, and of course make calls, according to Microsoft. It is fully integrated with Microsoft Office, and has Windows Phone, iPhone and Android (News - Alert) apps, along with Windows and Mac desktop clients.

Leveraging Lync are the snom 821 UC phones. Snom 821 phones are IP-based desk phones that have a dual SIP stack and a color screen combined with advanced presence features and other goodies, such as a server-side address book; WLAN support; presence integrated in call history, contact list and search results; and mapping of a user’s favourite contacts on three color buttons with instant presence view, according to snom.

Part of why Zycko chose the snom phones was because they are particularly fast to set up using their auto-configuration and provisioning options, notes the snom blog. The phones also are certified compatible with the Lync platform.

“It is good that I can control that call in the way that we always used to, controlling phone calls without having to open my Microsoft Lync window—to control the call, to transfer it, I can do it from the handset,” noted Andrew Roberts in the YouTube video, voice and video product manager for Zycko. “Snom is the only qualified handset that allows us to do that.”

Zycko has deployed 160 snom UC endpoint, as part of its Lync installation, according to the snom post, and it plans to scale to 350 snom UC edition phones in the coming months.

Serving clients throughout the world, Zycko is based out South Cerney, Cirencester, UK, with branch offices in Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Norway, Sweden and Poland.

“We’ve seen that with the snom, it is the best on the market,” added Sheppard in the video. “It is the best value for money, best for operability and integration, and we’ve noticed a massive difference in the market. Our sales in the last six months have more than doubled.”