POLYTYPE AG

Swiss packaging industry machine manufacturer implements modern network and UCC.

Country: Switzerland
Industry: Manufacturing
Solution: Unified Communications

Polytype produces machines for decorating and finishing plastic cups, lids, tubes, bottles and sleeves for the packaging industry. 200 Polytype AG employees and 10 of its parent company WIFAG-Polytype Holding AG work at the company's headquarters in Fribourg, Switzerland.

With our new infrastructure, we were able to move from classic, hardware-based telephony to a modern virtual, VoIP-based UCC environment. swisspro Solutions provided us with competent advice and support from the planning stage through to implementation.

Patrick Ruffieux, ICT Manager, Polytype

Challenges

The existing Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise telephone system provided classic telephony, but was too old to support modern Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) functions. The network solution was also outdated: The access switches did not offer Power over Ethernet (PoE) functionality, devices were connected with 100 Mbps only, and the uplinks of the switches were limited to 1 Gbps, which led to considerable performance losses.

Action

WIFAG-Polytype decided to implement a completely new network and communications infrastructure for its Fribourg site. The project was awarded to swisspro Solutions. The Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Swiss partner modernised the LAN and WLAN with new access switches and access points and installed a modern communications server with comprehensive functionality for VoIP telephony and unified communications. The entire server environment was virtualised and designed for high availability. It supports staff mobility through location-independent services and can be configured, controlled, and monitored centrally.

Results

Technical Benefits

High-performance, reliable LAN connectivity
Area-wide fast WLAN (Wi-Fi 6)
Virtual, highly available VoIP environment for telephony and unified communications
Centralised network management

Financial Benefits

Continued use of existing licences
Upgrades partly provided as part of the maintenance agreement
Reduced IT effort thanks to streamlined configuration, control, and monitoring
Network and telephony from a single source

User Experience Benefits

Location-independent telephony using any device
UCC features such as directory, one-number, and presence information enhance user comfort and productivity
Easy-to-use interface, identical on PC and smartphone
Fast access to high-performance WLAN
Automatic greeting and call forwarding streamline distribution of service calls