Ingersoll Rand is a diversified industrial company with global operations and complex information and communication requirements. As part of its worldwide strategy to move to an IP infrastructure, the decision was taken to upgrade its telephony infrastructure from traditional TDM across Europe to one platform – IP Telephony - designed and delivered by a single service provider.

The platform would initially serve 750 users but have the capacity to scale and grow with the business. At the outset, locations included the headquarters and a data centre in Dublin, along with offices in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK.

The voice solution comprises a resilient Cisco Call Manager cluster (running UC7 on MCS7835 servers) and resilient UNITY voice mail servers in Ingersoll’s Dublin data centre. The Call Managers set up and tear down calls and users access the cluster across Ingersoll’s MPLS WAN. The Call Manager sets up the call and the user then “breaks out” locally, via Voice Gateway Router connected to a PRI in each location.

The overall solution included design and implementation of a new LAN infrastructure, providing POE (power over Ethernet) and QoS (Quality of Service), built on Cisco’s 6500 series switches at the core and 3750 series switches at the access layer.

Also included was the implementation of Wireless LAN infrastructure in each location, featuring 4400 series WLAN controllers and “lightweight” Access Points powered by the POE-enabled LAN switches.

Because Ingersoll Rand wanted a future-proof investment, it was important that the service provider had the expertise to integrate with any environment and an international footprint that could expand into new territories.

After a year of planning, BT was selected as the single provider. “They won the contract because of all the positive feedback I received from its customers in Europe and the US, and because its pricing was very competitive,” said Svoboda.

 

Ingersoll Rand now has an IP Telephony infrastructure, managed and maintained by BT that facilitates the convergence of voice and data networks. MPLS is the enabling technology, and telephony call control is run out of a centralised call manager cluster in Ingersoll’s Dublin data centre, allowing network voice traffic to be monitored and prioritised in a way that was impossible before.

They recognised the benefits of going to IP telephony and of standardising on a single vendor, on a single technology and a single platform. BT has helped them to do that.”

Fiachra Murray, BT Sales Specialist, Convergence Technologies.

Savings have varied from country to country depending on the system that was replaced, but a return on the investment is already visible. In the Dublin office, telephony costs have been cut by half.

Management gains include lightening the load in terms of paperwork. Contracts drawn up in one jurisdiction, for example, can be transposed to another with minimal changes - 90 per cent of terms can be replicated.

With the hardware and infrastructure in place, the company has a communications template that can scale quickly. New offices can be opened in new countries and the only additional investment would be handsets. BT has already demonstrated the ability to slot into the jig-saw of a complex European network and multi-vendor environments, dealing with local service providers and integrating their PSTN networks into the larger WAN (Wide Area Network).

They dealt with all the issues relating to our local telecoms providers. It was a pleasure working with them and there wasn’t a single minute when I thought we had made the wrong decision.”

Peter Svoboda, Ingersoll Rand Territory Manager for Central and Eastern Europe and EU Countries.