Background
Based in Rhode Island, CCG Telecom (www.ccgtelecom.com) is an elite sales organization and Microsoft Unified Communications Integration Partner with a strong focus on end-to-end solution sales of telephony and VoIP hardware technology for small and large enterprise customers, service providers, system-integrators, solution providers, government entities, and educational institutions.
As a committed Microsoft partner, CCG has always made it its business to deploy Microsoft’s solutions internally within its own offices. By doing this, CCG not only benefits from the solutions themselves, but is also able to become acquainted with the solutions inside out to enable its team to offer its customers a high level of support. One example was CCG’s adoption of Microsoft Unified Communications. As early as 2008, CCG began using OCS, moving over to Lync 2010 and Lync 2013 as they became available.
According to CCG’s owner, Kevin Yorio, as Microsoft’s offering progressed from OCS to Lync, the features and functionality improved dramatically. However, those improvements came at a price. “The newer versions of Lync demanded an increasingly complex architecture,” he explained. “This in turn made management and maintenance of the system more problematic, requiring deeper levels of technical know-how – something which most organizations would not be able to handle in-house.”
Highlights & Challenges
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Cost-effective
A cost-effective solution for deploying Lync Enterprise Voice
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Full solution
Full Lync Enterprise Voice solution in a box
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Simple installation
Simple to install and maintain
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Reduce costs
Integrated management reduces operational expenses
"One Box 365 performed extremely well and, most importantly, it was dramatically easier to manage and maintain thanks to the integrated management system included in the solution."
Solution
Yorio was therefore intrigued to hear about AudioCodes’ new One Box 365 Standard Edition, an appliance-based Lync solution which contains all the necessary server software and hardware to deploy Enterprise Voice services. One Box 365 can be deployed as the main Lync voice infrastructure for SMBs as well as SMEs and larger enterprises in a fully standalone mode or as a highly efficient solution for providing Lync Enterprise Voice in an Office 365 environment.
“On paper, One Box 365 looked like the perfect solution,” he said. “The big question from our point of view was: can it all work on a single platform?”
With the help of AudioCodes’ support team throughout the installation process, CCG was able to have One Box 365 up and running in a very short time. The One Box hybrid TDM/IP configuration meant that CCG could continue using its existing Panasonic PBX in conjunction with Lync while gradually migrating its users in a controlled manner over to the new platform at a pace that suited the company. The integrated, Lync-certified SBC functionality within One Box 365 enabled rapid and seamless connectivity with CCG’s chosen SIP trunk provider, G12 Communications (www.g12com.com), an AudioCodes-certified SIP trunking partner that delivers a comprehensive portfolio of cloud-based enterprise-grade VoIP services. CCG’s in-house Lync users benefit from voice calls made via the Lync client and AudioCodes high-definition 440HD IP phones, as well as Lync’s additional UC features such as instant messaging, conferencing and online collaboration.
As it turned out, the team at CCG were pleasantly surprised by what they found. “One Box 365 performed extremely well and, most importantly, it was dramatically easier to manage and maintain thanks to the integrated management system included in the solution,” explained Yorio. “This helps our engineers save time and frees them up to concentrate on other critical tasks.”
Results
One Box 365 has delivered a number of important benefits to CCG, including:
- Reduced hardware footprint - full Lync 2013 deployment with Enterprise Voice on a single hardware platform.
- Simplified management - One Box 365’s integrated management system increases productivity and efficiency for administrators.
- Integrated Lync-certified voice connectivity - media gateway and SBC functionality built in enabling seamless connectivity with legacy and IP-based voice systems.
Most importantly, CCG is now using its own successful deployment of One Box 365 as a reference site for the company’s own customers. “I’m a big fan of simple”, explained Kevin Yorio, “and AudioCodes’ One Box 365 provides an extremely simple way of deploying Lync and reaping the benefits of Microsoft’s Unified Communications while reducing management overhead.”
“One of the first questions any potential customer asks is ‘Does it work?’” he added. “Based on our experience, we can unequivocally state: ‘Yes, it does!’”
