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Ridgeland, Mississippi February 25, 2005
Since its inception in 1986, Venture Technologies has always been a user of the technology that it recommends to its Clients. Voice communications is no exception. Recently, Venture replaced its older, traditional PBX system with Cisco's IP Telephony.
"Like many of our clients and prospects, we were seeking a way to enhance our corporate communications while trimming costs. Cisco's IP Telephony provides that", remarked Gerard Gibert, Venture's CEO.
Venture operates locations in Ridgeland, Memphis and Birmingham. In addition, several Venture staff work from home-office locations in Hattiesburg, Nashville and Albany, Georgia. For several years, each location operated stand alone phone systems. Calls between locations were toll-based long distance calls. Remote home office users connected via standard residential land lines and cell phones.
"Deploying IP Telephony changed all of that", said Gibert. "We had already replaced expensive private lease line connections between our offices with low-cost local broadband Internet connections when we converted our internal data systems to our NetHost ASP service. But we weren't utilizing those links for voice communications. Implementing IP Telephony allows us to use those low-cost links for interoffice voice communications." Venture also installed Cisco's IP phones at each remote worker's home.
Gibert says that the Venture staff really enjoys the 4-digit dialing throughout the company, including remote workers. "I believe it's actually made all of our remote workers feel more a part of the Venture family." Venture also has centralized voice mail and a centralized "human" attendant that has visibility into extension status throughout the system.
Gibert said that the system has been trouble free after one year of use. Venture's engineers installed their internal system using the same project methodology used for client installations. As always, Venture started with a comprehensive plan that included all the details necessary to ensure a smooth, "transparent" transition from the old PBX system. "We've been installing IP Telephony for over 4 years, said John Little", Venture's Chief Technology Officer. "During that time, we've learned a great deal that we've incorporated into our installation methodology, thus insuring successful deployments." Venture's engineers completed all of the configuration, installation, and deployment while the old system was in use. They then trained all of the Venture's users just prior to cutover.
"We left Friday afternoon using the old system and started work Monday using the new IP system", Gibert said. "There were absolutely no interruptions to our operations. Of course, our engineers were on-site and on standby to resolve any problems that arose. They were even ready to revert operations back to the old system, but of course, that was never necessary. It's our engineering team's dedication to excellence that makes Venture special".
Other major benefits of IP Telephony include simplification and virtual elimination of moves, adds and changes since a physical phone follows its corresponding worker to any network connection, use of single cabling and network infrastructure for voice and data, integration of PC-based soft phones, unified messaging, computer telephony Integration (CTI) and web-based administration.
When asked about the Naysayers that don't believe that IP Telephony is mature technology, Gibert had an interesting response. "I remember when manufacturers of mid-range and mainframe systems said that microcomputer technology would never have a place in a business environment." Today, microcomputer technology dominates business data processing. Most of those old-guard manufacturers refused to adapt, and thus exited the business. Eventually, IP Telephony will dominate voice communications much the way that the Internet Protocol (IP) has emerged as the global standard for data communications.
About Venture Technologies
Venture Technologies, an IT services company founded in 1986 by Gerard Gibert, CDP, and Norman Katool, CPA, is headquartered in Ridgeland, Miss. The company provides a variety of IT solutions including Network Design and Integration, Network Security, Unified Communications, Storage/Backup and, Managed Services. Venture serves private and public sector clients across the Southeast with locations in Ridgeland, Memphis, Birmingham, Baton Rouge and Destin.
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