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Mainio Vire

E-SBC powers migration from Siemens PBX to Microsoft Lync and SIP trunking

Background

Mainio Vire Oy (www.mainiovire.fi) offers high-quality social and care services and is one of the biggest social sector companies in Finland. The company operates in over 50 cities and employs around thousand highly skilled and motivated professionals. Its service offering includes social housing, homecare and emergency phone services, meal services, grocery pickup services and child daycare services.

Assisting Mainio Vire in this project was K&K Active (www.enkom-active.fi). Established in 1993, K&K is a value-added distributor for active equipment and ICT systems for data and telecommunication environments. The company’s customer base includes a wide range of businesses of all sizes from within the Finnish ICT market. Like many other companies, Mainio Vire had come to the decision that it was time to move on from its traditional telephony system and introduce a unified communications platform which would offer instant messaging, collaboration and multimedia conferencing beyond the basic functionality of voice calling.

Microsoft Lync was chosen as Mainio Vire’s preferred platform for UC as it provided all the required features. In terms of voice communications, Lync was initially only used for internal calls. All external calling was still handled by the legacy Siemens Openscape PBX which was connected to the PSTN via an E1 connection. As users became more comfortable with Lync, the demand grew for them to be able to make and receive external calls directly from their desktops. Since the only connection to the PSTN was via the Siemens’ PBX, Mainio Vire needed a solution which would provide seamless connectivity between Lync and the PBX, handle call routing and perform the necessary number manipulations to ensure that all calls would be handled correctly.

Highlights & Challenges

  • Seamless connectivity

    Solution should provide seamless connectivity between Lync and the PBX

  • Call routing

    Apply call routing and ensure that all calls are handled correctly

  • Unified communications

    Introduce a UC platform offering instant messaging, collaboration and multimedia conferencing

  • Cost savings

    Significant cost savings with move to SIP trunking

"AudioCodes’ E-SBC has helped us immensely in achieving a smooth migration to Microsoft Lync. With the SIP trunking connection already up and running, we will be able to retire our existing PBX at the right time without causing any disruption to our users’ service."

Erno Onatsu, IT Manager at Mainio Vire

Solution

Together with K&K, Mainio Vire selected the AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC) to provide the connectivity between the legacy Siemens PBX and the new Microsoft Lync platform. Thanks to its comprehensive support for the SIP protocol, the Mediant 1000 E-SBC offers seamless interoperability with virtually any SIP-based VoIP systems, including Lync 2010 and 2013 for which it has achieved full Microsoft certification.

During the planning stage of the project, it became apparent that the full potential of the E-SBC could be realized if Mainio Vire switched from using TDM-based PSTN connections to using SIP trunking. The versatility of the E-SBC meant that it could be used a mediation device between Lync, the Siemens PBX and the SIP trunking service provider (in this case, TDC). The E-SBC’s flexible routing capabilities ensure that incoming calls from the SIP trunking network were routed seamlessly either to the PBX or to Lync as required. Outbound calls from either system were carried to the PSTN via the E-SBC and the SIP trunk. Furthermore, the E-SBCs integrated security mechanisms ensure that Mainio Vire’s network was protected from potential malicious threats.

  • Mediant 1000 SBC

    The AudioCodes Mediant 1000 enterprise session border controller (E-SBC) and media gateway is designed to provide a complete connectivity solution for small-to-medium sized enterprises.

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Results

The deployment of AudioCodes’ Mediant 1000 E-SBC has given Mainio Vire a great opportunity to migrate to a fully IP-based communications infrastructure with the minimum of disruption. During the migration process, the company has been able to continue using its Siemens PBX as long as necessary while it gradually moves users over to Lync. The E-SBC has also resulted in significant cost savings, once the company decided to dispense with its E1 connections to the PSTN and adopt SIP trunking.

"AudioCodes’ E-SBC has helped us immensely in achieving a smooth migration to Microsoft Lync," said Erno Onatsu, IT-Manager at Mainio Vire. "With the SIP trunking connection already up and running, we will be able to retire our existing PBX at the right time without causing any disruption to our users’ service."

Mika Sinkkonen, Product Manager, VoIP at K&K Active, commented, "Today, many customers see the benefits of IP communications and want to be able to migrate from their existing TDM platforms smoothly and securely. AudioCodes’ Mediant E-SBCs are the perfect solution for this, as we have seen at Mainio Vire, and we are confident that many more customers will take note of this success story and want to follow suit."

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