GRI (UK) Limited, London - 2006
Cisco Unified IP Telephony Solution
The Challenge: As part of a building move project, GRI (UK) Limited required a new telephony system to replace their ageing, and increasingly expensive to maintain legacy PBX system. As another subsequent building move was planned about 24 months later, the solution had to be easy to deploy initially and then easy to move and recommission. The system needed to provide comprehensive call processing facilities including hunt groups, pickup groups and integrated voicemail.
The Solution: After being engaged by GRI (UK) Limited, Nettitude selected and implemented a Cisco IP Telephony and Data network, incorporating a Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express telephone system with Cisco Unity Express voicemail. Cisco Catalyst Express 500 switches provided the LAN infrastructure and also provided embedded Power over Ethernet (PoE) support for the Cisco IP 7900 series handsets.
The entire system was installed, configured, tested and handed over within 2 days with all of the users migrating from the old offices across the course of a weekend. The bare minimum of user training on the phone system was required due to the intuitive nature of the Cisco handsets.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express provides sophisticated call handling for systems up to 240 handsets. This includes all the standard call processing functions that would be expected, including pickup groups, hunt groups and conferencing. Cisco Unity Express, the voicemail component of Communications Manager Express, provides sophisticated features including email delivery of voicemails, and individual and group mailboxes. As the IP Handsets simply appear as devices on the Local Area Network, the migration of the system to a new building will be easy and requires no more planning than moving other network devices including PCs.
In the future, GRI (UK) Limited is planning on implementing with Nettitude Unified Messaging, where voicemails are synchronized into the user’s email inbox. In addition, the usage of commercial IP call trunking services (commonly known as SIP Gateways) are being evaluated to understood the cost savings that could be accrued.
The Benefits: Nettitude designed a cost effective and elegant integrated Cisco Unified Communications solution incorporating data and voice services. The solution provides all of the telephony features and services required by GRI (UK) Limited and establishes a platform to move into future “value-add” IP services such as SIP trunking and Unified Messaging. The Cisco system was delivered quickly and required little in user training or education and positions GRI (UK) Limited to be able to quickly and easily move buildings in the future.
Background: A name well-known to the insiders in the fashion industry, Global Retail inc. (GRI) is undeniably one of the largest retail networks worldwide. For the uninitiated, GRI is responsible for bringing internationally hailed American brands such as Anne Klein New York, Jane & David and Nine West Accessories to Asia and selected cities in Europe. The success stories further enhance familiar names from Nine west Group such as Enzo Angiolini, Easy Spirit and most recently the Nine West Sportswear to the territories. In addition to distribution, GRI is also the parent of chic brands such as EQ:IQ and Episode while bringing up the multi brand accessory concept store of Sole Alliance. With its head office based in Hong Kong, GRI boasts 10 offices globally. Since its foundation in 1998, GRI has rapidly built a reputation of offering products of superior quality and craftsmanship. In addition, GRI provides a significant amount of resources in the marketing and development of the group brands.