Nieuwegein - Avaya, leverancier van communicatienetwerken en -diensten aan de zakelijke markt, heeft een overeenkomst gesloten met de Universiteit van Lund in Zweden voor de levering van een convergente infrastructuur, communicatieapplicaties en services. De overeenkomst met één van de grootste onderwijsinstellingen van Noord-Europa, met ruim 38.000 studenten, heeft een waarde van enkele miljoenen euro's. Als het systeem in 2005 gereed is, is dit de grootste IP-implementatie met SIP-mogelijkheden (Session Initiation Protocol) in Noord-Europa.
Het nieuwe Avaya-netwerk biedt de 7.000 medewerkers van de universiteit telefoniediensten. Ze krijgen allemaal een eigen IP-extensie waardoor gesprekken eenvoudig over te zetten zijn naar de 230 universiteitslocaties in vier verschillende steden. Binnenkort beschikken de medewerkers ook over volledige mobiliteit doordat ze hun gesprekken eenvoudig van vaste lijnen kunnen routeren naar mobiele toestellen, PDA's en draadloze IP-toestellen van Avaya, terwijl de extensie hetzelfde blijft.
De universiteit zocht een nieuwe telefonieoplossing en wilde zijn innovatieve reputatie onderstrepen. Met deze Avaya-infrastructuur wil de universiteit zijn medewerkers als eerste in Noord-Europa SIP-adressen bieden.
SIP biedt mogelijkheden voor realtime peer-to-peer communicatie. Hierbij wordt gebruik gemaakt van een URL. Via deze URL wordt data naar één of meer apparaten of diensten zoals een telefoon, instant message of een e-mailaccount gerouteerd. SIP verzorgt de routering van een verzoek voor een peer-to-peer-sessie voor een specifieke URL naar het juiste contact behorend bij dat adres. SIP maakt daarbij gebruik van informatie over de voorkeur voor een communicatiemiddel, aanwezigheid of locatie van de gebruiker.
# # #
Hier treft u het volledige Engelstalige bericht aan:
Voor meer informatie:
Lammers van Toorenburg Benelux PR
Evelien van Dongen
Tel: 030 656 50 70
avaya@lvtpr.nl
Avaya Nederland B.V.
Rob de Moor
Tel: 030 609 77 41
rdemoor@avaya.com
# # #
One of Northern Europe's Largest Academia, Lund University, Selects Avaya for Scandinavia's Biggest IP-SIP Installation
3-year pilot by Lund University culminates with Avaya as clear IP choice and multi-million euro contract
SARDINIA, ITALY. - Avaya Inc. (NYSE:AV), a leading global provider of communications networks and services for businesses, today announced a multi-million euro agreement to provide converged infrastructure, communications applications and serices to Lund University in Sweden, one of Northern Europe's largest institutions of education with 38,000 students. When complete in 2005, the system will be one of the largest SIP-enabled IP telephony implementations in Northern Europe.
The new Avaya network will provide telephony services for Lund University's 7,000 employees, each with their own IP extension, allowing them to easily transfer calls around the university's 230 locations across four cities. With the popularity of wireless in Sweden, employees will also enjoy complete mobility by being able to choose and route calls from land lines to mobiles, PDAs and Avaya wireless IP phones using the same extension number.
Lund University wanted a telephony solution that would seamlessly support existing infrastructure, yet meet future applications. Famed for its early adoption of new communication innovations, it also demanded cutting-edge technology. Lund University was the first university in Scandinavia to offer each of its employees email addresses. It hopes to replicate this move by being the first to offer its employees SIP addresses with the new Avaya system in the near future.
To achieve this, it undertook a rigorous three-year assessment process investigating solutions from five vendors. At the final stage of the selection process, a sophisticated computerised tool ranked each of the bidders. Avaya emerged as the
undisputed leader gaining the highest marks, finishing 27 percentage points ahead of its nearest competitor. It was the only vendor able to meet all of Lund University's requirements, including the support of its existing system and the provision of SIP functionality.
Initially, 4,000 lines will be connected to the IP network with the remaining 3,000 still operating on the legacy network. Despite this, the two systems will link seamlessly in such as way that callers and users will not even realise which network they are connected to and experience no disruption. Lund University expects the use of IP telephony to reduce costs and provide more flexibility to employees.
Magnus Svensson, Head of IT for Lund University's Faculty of Law and a Senior Member of its telecoms group said: "For a project of this size and importance, identifying the best technical solution that met our criteria in terms of scalability, reliability, overall network security and ease of implementation was key. The Avaya IP solutions and team proved outstanding in the pilot and came out streets ahead of the competition. I have 20 years of experience in the telecoms industry and I have never seen such compelling results."
This is not a one-off project for Lund University; in the future, it is also envisaging extending the IP network to other telephony projects to improve communication within the university, such as setting up an internal multi-media contact centre based on the new network as well as remote working possibilities for employees.
The new communications network is based on the flagship IP telephony component of the Avaya MultiVantage(tm) Communications Applications portfolio, Communication Manager. It is based on an IP multi-connect configuration. The IP extensions will be powered by Avaya's MultiVantage software and Netwise CMG, a third party referral system, operating the switchboard. Avaya Global Services will implement the Avaya IP solution, as well as provide multi-vendor network management services for the switches and existing network infrastructure during the transition period.
Lars-Ole Hansen, Avaya's regional president, Europe, Middle East and Africa said, "Like businesses, educational institutions are under a great deal of pressure to improve customer service while cutting costs. Our SIP-enabled converged communications solution will do exactly that for Lund University by contributing to a reduction in its communications and upgrade costs, as well as enabling the integration of new future applications in an easy, secure and cost-effective way. As Avaya IP solutions offer interoperability with other vendor's communication systems, Lund will be able to migrate to a 100% IP environment at its own pace, and ensure that subscribers and employees do not feel any disruption to the phone service while benefiting from a range of new applications."
Notes to editors:
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) facilitates peer-to-peer communication. Such communications are identified by an internet-style address called a URL. This URL maps onto one or more devices or services, like a phone, instant message or email account, at which the corresponding user may be reached. The SIP framework is responsible for routing a request for a peer-to-peer session addressed to a specific URL to one or more appropriate contacts for that address. The framework may utilise information about the preferences, presence and location of the user identified by the URL, to determine the most appropriate contacts.
IP telephony enables voice and data collaboration over an 'Internet Protocol' network, so that all types of communications - audio, video and data, wired and wireless voice - run over a single packet network. In turn, users are able to access new levels of feature functionality from a diverse range of devices, including phones, PCs, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones.
# # #
About Avaya
Avaya Inc. designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including over 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®. Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) telephony systems and communications software applications and services.
Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. For more information visit the Avaya website: www.avaya.com
About Lund University
Lund University, founded in 1666, is one of Sweden's largest and most comprehensive universities. Today it has about 34,000 undergraduates and 3,200 postgraduates.
Students can choose from among some 50 educational programmes and over 800 separate courses. The University has about 7,000 employees. Two-thirds of them are teachers and researchers, while the rest are technical and administrative personnel. The annual budget for the University operations - tuition, research, equipment, libraries, and service - is around SEK 4 billion.