New IP telephony infrastructure and Contact Centre lays foundations for future functionality and international communications for SMC

[Lichfield] – 08 February, 2010. NextiraOne, Europe’s leading expert in communications services, has won another contract for its highly successful Unified Communications solution in the UK. SMC Pneumatics UK Ltd, part of SMC Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer of pneumatic components and associated equipment, chose NextiraOne to upgrade its Telephony Systems and provide a scalable solution that will allow the future deployment of Unified Communications applications and collaborative working. The deal follows NextiraOne’s successful implementation of a similar solution for SMC’s German subsidiary.

Under the agreement NextiraOne has implemented an Alcatel-Lucent Omni-PCX Enterprise system creating an IP telephony platform at the company’s site in Milton Keynes in the UK. In the longer term the aim is to network the UK and German sites via Voice over IP (VoIP) links, helping to reduce telephony costs between the two countries. The solution is also likely to roll out to other SMC locations world-wide, bringing additional cost savings.

The solution, based on the Alcatel-Lucent Omni-PCX Enterprise platform, has the facility to be developed into a fully featured Unified Communications infrastructure in the future, that would create an enhanced working environment including collaboration tools such as MyTeamwork and video conferencing, both of which are planned by SMC in a later phase.

SMC also wanted to improve its sales and marketing communications environment and NextiraOne has implemented a Contact Centre application. Based on an Alcatel-Lucent OmniTouch Contact Centre, the system allows SMC to handle and route calls more effectively and add customised call prompts for queuing calls.

Since reliability and resilience were key issues for SMC, NextiraOne designed the network with dual servers and has agreed a three-year Operational Support Agreement(OSA) with the company to provide remote and on-site support according to agreed service levels.

Future planned work involves the introduction of further functionality in the UK and the building of VoIP links to the company’s German operation and potentially to other sites in Europe.

“We have taken a long-term strategic view of our communications needs and we wanted a partner that could deliver in the way we envisaged. NextiraOne not only understood our approach but also had the international capability to deliver at both our initial sites, and potentially further locations in the future,” said Marc Bangs of SMC Pneumatics (UK) Limited.

NextiraOne is Europe’s leading expert in communications services and has a direct sales and service presence in 17 countries, serving more than 60,000 customers.  The company  designs, installs, maintains and supports solutions to meet the communications needs of its customers - from voice, data and video to mobility, security and applications. Working with the world’s leading technology companies, NextiraOne provides end-to-end communications solutions to deliver measurable business benefits to its customers through an alliance of more than 100 service partners worldwide.

Steven Skakel, Managing Director UK & Ireland at NextiraOne, said: “SMC Pneumatics came to us because of our expertise in delivering collaborative solutions that are fit for purpose and internationally viable. By taking a scaled approach we have been able to help our customer to achieve its short term objectives in replacing an aging system and also look to longer term strategic objectives which will deliver quantifiable benefits in reduced telephony costs in the UK and internationally.”