University of Western Sydney goes live with unified communications system

A converged voice and data network costing $1.2 million from NEC is set to deliver productivity gains for the University of Western Sydney (UWS).

The university-wide unified communications system was launched early in February . The project will reduce the ongoing operational cost of running a telephony network as well as provide greater flexibility and portability to university staff and improved services to students.

The new network features a fully converged IP telephony infrastructure incorporating unified communications functionality such as presence and unified messaging.

Paul Hardaker, IT Infrastructure Services Manager at the University of Western Sydney, said: “Upgrading the communications network provides us with the opportunity to consolidate the communications infrastructure across all of our campuses, reduce our operational costs and better support our staff and students. This new system is able to support the growth and changing needs of the university.”

The new network consists of two NEC SV8500 VoIP servers with distributed architecture across the university’s six campuses, and is able to support up to 4000 users. NEC Australia worked with the University of Western Sydney to integrate existing handsets with the new data and voice infrastructure.

University staff often work on a number of campuses and the unified communications system enables staff to be productive regardless of their location. Unified communications features such as follow-me numbers, unified messaging and presence bring greater value and flexibility to employees. Staff will soon be able to log into a phone from anywhere on any campus and use their number and address book, allowing them to work productively from any location. Presence information will provide visibility into colleague availability and preferred contact methods, saving time and streamlining communications, while unified messaging merges voicemail with email to deliver greater efficiencies.

Current and prospective students now have greater access to staff and student centre support, with the network enabling call centre queues to be run across multiple campuses and student enquiries to be more quickly answered.

“We worked closely with UWS to deliver a centrally managed telephony platform that would be easy to manage and future-proof. In addition to supporting the current needs of the university, the network is also capable of supporting video, providing UWS with the freedom to expand into richer communications in the future,” said Bob Lanigan, General Manager National Sales & Customer Support, NEC Australia.

The system is currently active across the University of Western Sydney campuses in Parramatta, Campbelltown, Bankstown, Blacktown, Penrith, Hawkesbury and Penrith.