Cisco Gold Partner Netarx Delivers Cisco Converged Network Technology to Macomb Community College
Macomb Community College had aging data and voice networks with limited vendor support. To bring the college to the forefront in technology, Cisco Gold Partner Netarx deployed a converged voice and data network for the college's five campuses.
The Cisco solution-including IPCC Express, IP telephony, a GIG backbone, and fully meshed core-provides users with many benefits, while saving money.
Industry
Education
Business Challenge
Macomb Community College had aging data and voice networks with limited vendor support. As part of an overall plan to bring the college to the forefront in technology, it looked to Cisco Gold Partner Netarx to design and deploy a leading edge converged voice and data network for the college's five campuses.
Network Solution
IPCC Express, IP telephony, a GIG backbone, and fully meshed core.
Business Results
The converged network has unified the five campuses of Macomb Community College, providing users with IP phones, mobility, unified messaging, and VPN. The college's IT staff is supporting a single network that is delivering more reliability, availability, and productivity, while saving money with the single-network solution.
Macomb Community College, located in Warren, Michigan, serves 24,000 students through its five campuses. As the second-largest community college in Michigan, it offers two-year programs as well as four-year degrees through some state and local universities that have developed close ties with the college and have presence on Macomb's University Center campus.
Ten years ago, Dr. Norman Schlafmann joined the college as its new Vice President of Information, Research and Technology, with the goal of bringing the latest technology to the college. Under his leadership, a few years ago, classroom media were purchased, and a new business system was deployed. His latest goal was to completely remove the 20-year-old legacy data and voice networks and replace them with a converged data and voice network.
"We had an aging ATM data network, which was no longer being supported, and I had the Gartner Group advised that private branch exchange (PBX) phone systems would be obsolete by 2006," says Schlafmann. "We were convinced it was time for a converged network. We would have the most up-to-date network technology, plus have a return on investment (ROI) and savings realized by the single network system."
Schlafmann was committed to a Cisco solution due to its reliability, product services, and support, but conducted an open bidding process. The final two vendors were Cisco and Nortel. Schlafmann's IT staff visited sites with a converged network in place to see the equipment in operation, and got a better appreciation for what such a solution can provide to an organization. Then he both Cisco and Nortel were invited to compete in setting up a demo solution for IP voice. By midday on the first day, Cisco partner Netarx had dial tone with Cisco gear.
"Much consideration went into our final choice," says Schlafmann. "Since the companies that provided our previous solution were no longer around, the stability of Cisco as a company was critical. We looked at issues of support, quality of technology, and available integrators, and we felt that Cisco and its partners were better prepared. With more than 100 Cisco converged networks deployed in Michigan, we had lots of references."
Schlafmann chose Cisco Gold Certified Partner Netarx Inc., which holds Cisco specializations in IP communications, VPN security, wireless, and remote network operations.
"Netarx is a young, growing company," says Schlafmann. "They impressed us with their creative ideas, plus they had experience with deploying a similar system for another Michigan community college with great success."
Mike Morley, senior account manager for Netarx, understood the goals of Macomb Community College.
"Nearly everyone contacting us these days is centralizing IT and going for leaner branch concepts," he says. "More organizations are doing more with less, and that certainly includes the education sector."
Netarx recommended a Cisco solution including IPCC Express, IP telephony, a GIG backbone, and fully meshed core. The company worked closely with Schlafmann and his IT team to plan a deployment of a converged data and voice network that would not disrupt faculty or students. Although Schlafmann was fully committed to a converged network, Netarx spent some time educating the Macomb IT staff on the solution and its capabilities. Morley notes that an IP network offers so many features and capabilities, so the Netarx, Macomb, and local Cisco teams worked closely to ensure that the solution would deliver everything that the college was seeking, and stay on budget."
"This was a multiphase process that we considered a combination of the older network and PBX systems," says Morley. "In phase one we would upgrade the infrastructure, then in phase two we would enable the applications within." Netarx would also recommend Extensible Markup Language applications to increase productivity and further extend IP capabilities.
"Cisco uses open standards and that allows for a lot of development and phased opportunities," says Schlafmann. "Everyone-Cisco, Netarx, and the college IT staff- researched together toward the common goal."
The deployment was on a tight schedule - instruction could not be interrupted, and Schlafmann wanted the project completed in a timely manner. Netarx accommodated the challenging schedule by working during a semester break, and then overnight and weekends when necessary to avoid instructional time. Netarx also was responsible for two types of training: curriculum training and administration training to teach those who would manage the system. Key staff was sent to a Texas site for advanced training.
Today the campuses of Macomb Community College are unified under one converged voice and data network. Staff and administration are no longer dialing seven-digit numbers to reach each other. From a support perspective, Schlafmann considers the converged network critical; and the users benefit from the classroom IP phones, the mobility, unified messaging, and VPN.
"This whole system is an exciting adventure for us," says Schlafmann. "We are looking at rolling out wireless next, so we are reviewing pilot studies to see how we would manage that and provide security."
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