When financial services firm Mellon Financial decided to
bring its business under one roof in Blackfriars, London in April
2004, it quickly became clear that the consolidation effort would
also apply to its voice and data networks.
"We had previously debated the merits of converged voice and data
networks at great length and found the whole proposition very
attractive," said Andy Williams, Mellon's European chief
information officer.
"The only thing holding us back was the cost of rewiring existing
offices. The move to a new location swept those concerns aside and
made the project look more viable."
It was, he said, an opportunity the company needed to seize, not
least because it realised it could immediately save about 555,000
by not having to wire the new building to carry phone calls.
Added to that was the benefit of dispensing with costly and
cumbersome private branch exchange systems. Instead, Mellon
implemented an IP network to carry both voice and data, working
with network specialist Omnetica, now part of Kingston
Communications.
This has had a major impact on Mellon's IT team. "We have seen some
reduction in head count as the teams for managing voice and data
systems have merged and some employees struggled with that move,"
said Williams.
"For many, though, it has been a positive change, enabling them to
move into new areas of network management and acquire new
skills."
End-users have responded positively as well.
"They agree that the quality of voice services matches the standard
they were used to previously, and they like the features of the IP
phones that we have provided them with, such as on-screen shortcut
dialling, and they are able to manage these functions themselves,"
said Williams.
"As long as they can receive and make calls without disruption,
they are not bothered.
"The real benefit of our shift to IP telephony is that it has
underpinned a wider effort to integrate and consolidate the
business so our people and teams can work more efficiently
together."
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