The phased expansion and upgrade of the existing communications infrastructure will enable the University of York to meet its challenge of providing both the very best facilities and study capabilities for its 11,000 students, as well as help staff operate more flexibly and collaboratively through a one number service.
The new project will see the migration of the university’s existing ISDX network to the Siemens Enterprise Communications next generation, carrier grade OpenScape UC platform. This will provide a secure foundation for assessing the university and individual needs to bring future communication enhancements on board, such as the OpenScape Unified Communications Application, to provide even greater productivity benefits. In addition, the new platform will assist the university in delivering operational efficiency savings through benefits such as the one number service and reduced mobile phone costs.
Peter Jarvis, Information Services Manager at the University of York, said; “We are committed to attracting the highest calibre students, and providing the best learning environments for them. OpenScape UC provides an effective way to meet these needs, and to give both our academic and administrative support staff the opportunity to become more productive and flexible in the way they work.
“We selected Siemens Enterprise Communications as we were looking for a technology partner that would deliver innovation, strategic advice and a seamless migration path. We also wanted greater resilience for future communication plans such as fixed mobile convergence and unified communications to further reduce costs.”
A key requirement of the upgrade was a seamless migration, providing the same level of reliability for all users, with minimal disruption during the transition to the new system. The platform selected is a carrier Grade A product that provides a resilient and flexible platform for future growth.
The initial roll-out of the OpenScape UC platform is integrated with the existing ISDX network on the new campus expansion at Heslington East, supporting 800 users, which was completed at the end of July 2010. The platform is deployed across two data centres within the university campus, to provide a high level of resilience. From this stage the wider university outreach could include a move towards collaboration of users, fixed mobile convergence and a single device for all communication – all built upon the established OpenScape UC platform. These future plans could significantly reduce call costs for the University of York.