With plans to move into a new campus environment containing three buildings designed to accommodate 300-400 people, the world's leading supplier of solid propulsion systems required a systems integrator they could trust. After an extensive review of telephony and network integrators in the surrounding area, the company chose Vector Resources. "We liked that Vector provided a turnkey solution, they could handle all our needs and would not subcontract any of the work," noted their IT Director. "Vector also provided the best design for our needs and worked with us to manage our costs." The company selected Vector's proposal for three primary reasons: it would improve end-user efficiency; require less management from the company's IT staff and work effectively for the entire organization. The Company's needs included: A converged network architecture consisting of core and edge switches. Construction cost management. The design and installation of a data center, infrastructure cabling and fiber connectivity between the three buildings. "What the client needed demonstrates where Vector excels," Mark Bonin, Senior Account Manager at Vector Resources, added.

Solution Overview

A critical decision in this project was the selection of the phone system. A competitive firm had recommended a very sophisticated, full-featured phone system that required significant training and management at a significantly higher cost. Vector recommended a 3Com VoIP system along with the data network core and edge switches which better fit the facility's business model, was easier to implement, manage, and was cost effective. In addition, the three buildings required a new voice and data infrastructure.

Technical Detail

Vector Resources completed the following as part of this project : Designed, installed and configured a 3Com NBX Superstack III with more than 250 handsets within the Company's three building campus environment. Designed, installed and configured 3Com core and edge switches to replace the existing Cisco data networking requirements. Installed internal cabling and paging system for each building and linked each building together with outside plant fiber that allowed the client total connectivity for their voice and data network. The entire project included 50 paging speakers, 685 cables to 346 workstations and a total of 255 NBX phones.

Results

Vector Resources completed this project on time and under budget. The client reports that the system has functioned precisely as Vector's pre-sales team described, has improved performance and reduced IT support needs, thus giving the company a lower total cost of ownership. "I found the entire staff from Vector to be very professional and technically excellent. They met all of our needs from initial concept design thru final deployment," noted the client's Communications Manager.