Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc.
Communications investment supports ongoing expansion and happy clients.
- Country: United States Of America
- Solution: Rainbow
Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc., an engineering and science consulting firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, sought a technology investment to support years of expansion and critical customer interactions. Today with 1,150 employees across 23 locations CEC continues to evolve, using communications to move business forward in changing times.
Challenges
CEC began looking to replace its nearly two-decade old phone system some years ago. As business grew, they discovered Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise solutions were robust, reliable and built to support on-going growth. Integrator Communications Consulting Inc. (CCI) guided them with knowledge to enhance their investment with features and programming that delivered more bandwidth and simplified day-to-day business activities.
Action
CCI introduced the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise (OXE) when CEC went to bid for a new phone system. The OXE has grown with the business, delivering a mix of IP and analog phone capabilities, offering flexibility when adding offices. CCI has helped CEC to discover and activate features like one-button call forwarding, auto routing services for live person pick up, and universal four-digit extension.
A parallel investment in Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch stackable LAN switches created an enhanced network environment to accommodate growth. The switches let CEC easily add and tie together switches to run 10G backplanes over fiber on each floor in locations with over 100 employees. Management of the network is done remotely via Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista Cirrus cloud network management tool by the four IT employees.
Recently, employees leveraged Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Rainbow™ as an extension of desk phone lines to safely and effectively work from home, maintain projects and operations and provide integration with Teams. And today on-the-road employees also benefit from this functionality.
“CCI has managed all the implementations and has been an excellent partner for us. They take care of our needs and asks and are very responsive,” noted Heinack.
Results
Technical Benefits:
- OmniSwitch products deliver reliable and consistent 10G broadband
- Network management and product updates simplified with OmniVista Cirrus cloud network management
- OmniPCX Enterprise built to grow as business required, adapting range of IP and analog services
- Call forwarding tree assures clients speak with a live person when sites experience an outage, ex. Inclement weather, staff unavailable due to Covid-19 exposure
Financial Benefits:
- ALE solutions are half the cost of previous network and deliver dependable quality
- OXE extended remote access saves cash leveraging simple install of handsets at locations without need to install another system
- Switches are reliable, cost effective, seldom fail; A downed network can cost six-to-ten thousand dollars per hour for CEC business
User Experience Benefits:
- Employee favorite features: “15yrs later, these are still game changing features for employees,” Heinack: External dial-by-name keypad across locations ease daily communication; 4-digit dialing; Call-back busy button
- Virtual extensions for employment verification voicemail and IT help desk enrich external interactions
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Civil Engineering and Consulting Case Study
DownloadCEC supports years of business growth, critical customer interactions, and happy employees with ALE switches and phones