Network Equipment Technologies (NET), a global network equipment manufacturer and provider of voice exchange solutions, announced that itsVX Series intelligent voice over IP (VoIP) switches and gateways were picked by Belgium-based publishing house Brepols Publishers to ease its deployment of a  Microsoft Office Communication Server (OCS)-based unified communications and messaging system.

 

“The NET VX Series' exceptional compatibility and interoperability enabled Brepols to effectively implement Microsoft's solution in its existing network-and-telecom environment so that it could rapidly gain the business benefits of convergence without losing the use of its existing fax machines, compromising access to local emergency services, or otherwise disrupting its ongoing business,” NET said.

 

Brepols Publishers is an international academic publishing house with two main offices and a warehouse in Belgium and another office in New York. By adopting VoIP and unified communications, Brepols hopes to improve the performance of its teleworking employees who depend on its virtual private network (VPN) connection. 

 

OCS was selected as the core convergence platform for implementing the unified communication technology for Brepols.

 

While addressing the most important concerns such as the reliability of communication between all internal and external endpoints and auto-attendant functionality for three different languages (French, English, and Dutch), Brepols wanted that the existing devices such as PBX and door phones be very well utilized. Brepols found NET VX1200 gateway the ideal solution for addressing its concerns.

 

“The VX Series intelligent VoIP switches and gateways provide flexible 'any-to-any' connectivity, robust call routing functions, Active Directory integration, and the granular control of messaging parameters necessary to accommodate complex Microsoft OCS configurations,” the company said.

 

The company added: “The VX Series also provides essential features such as Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) registration for Wireless Fidelity (WiFi (News - Alert)) clients, embedded QoS mechanisms, and simplified connectivity to both public switched telephone network (PSTN) and external IP telephony service providers — which gives the company optimum flexibility for reducing its international toll charges.”

 

According to Wim Borgers, manager, IT and Administration, Brepols, NET’s VX Series enabled the company to quickly and effectively implement highly sophisticated converged communications in a relatively small, but still rather complex, existing infrastructure.

"We are extremely satisfied with both the functionality of NET's hardware and the obvious expertise that NET demonstrated in accommodating our very exacting technical requirements," added Borgers.

 

Chuck Rutledge (News - Alert), VP of Corporate Marketing for NET, said that the advanced VoIP gateway features of VX1200 helped Brepols to overcome the challenges involved in integrating Microsoft OCS into their network.

 

“Their (Brepol’s) roadmap has a number of challenges, including SIP WiFi clients registered to the VX, SIP trunks to other countries, such as France, the US and Italy, and Polycom (News - Alert) SIP phones. All of these can be addressed with the VX Series,” added Rutledge.