The University of Plymouth is one of the UK's most prominent and dynamic universities with an educational history dating back to 1862. The University, which is consistently ranked as one of the top three modern universities, serves the daily needs of over 30,000 students and 3,000 members of staff who deliver research and teaching to world-class standards.
Enabling its employees, including lecturers, administrative and support staff, to deliver the highest levels of service to the growing intake of students is critical to the ongoing success of any university. As an institution that sees effective communication as pivotal to the success of its employees and students, the University of Plymouth was actively looking for a general technology refresh and upgrade throughout the network, and in particular was keen to experience IP telephony (IPT) and realise the cost benefits of the new technology.
"The University of Plymouth is a modern and dynamic educational institution, and was keen to embrace the technology future with IP Telephony (IPT) that would enable cost-savings and access to an array of new IP applications," explains Westell Marketing Director Vaughn Armstrong.
The University decided to pursue a phased migratory approach to IPT to enable them to continue using their legacy PBX telephony system - a Siemens 3000+ TDM - whilst at the same time introducing new IP based phone systems. After evaluating several alternatives, the University decided to use the Westell InterChange iQ 2000plus for its internetworking capabilities, to link the existing Siemens 3000+ legacy TDM with the CallManager system.
Aside from being the most cost-effective solution, the Westell IiQ 2000plus was quickly and simply deployed and has proved instrumental in maintaining important legacy functionality and usability that the University's staff depended on.
John Stiles, Telephone Systems Supervisor at the University of Plymouth, said of the implementation, "The Westell IiQ2000plus has been extremely effective and reliable as a convergence gateway providing us with good cross functionality and operator controls. There have been no internetworking issues with Cisco CallManager and potential loss of valuable DPNSS services, which convinced us to place more emphasis on the technology and scale the IP migration project further. We are more than pleased with Westell and have not experienced a single problem during installation or operation."