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UK housing society chooses ntl:Telewest Business |
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Monday, 04 August 2008 |
ntl:Telewest Business will provide a complete network infrastructure for Merlin Housing Society. A not-for-profit organisation, Merlin took over the running of South Gloucestershire Council's housing stock in February 2007. The network went live in July 2008. The new £300,000 network, which will be used for all data and voice communications, will link Merlin's six main sites and 53 additional smaller offices, including sheltered housing and hostels. The new network, which will significantly increase efficiency, will be used by all 270 of Merlin's employees. In the future, network access will also be extended to mobile staff that are visiting or working at residents' homes. As a new organisation, Merlin Housing Society needed to put in place a complete, flexible, robust infrastructure that would enable fast and efficient communications, underpinning its commitment to provide the highest quality social housing to its residents. Following an extensive procurement process that began in July 2007 and involved 76 suppliers, ntl:Telewest Business was selected in December 2007. Merlin chose to partner with ntl:Telewest Business due to the company's combination of technical and business skills, network quality and ability to deliver value for money. The new network infrastructure comprises a Wide Area Network (WAN) running at up to 100Mbits/s, linking Merlin's sites and a Cisco-based Local Area Network (LAN) for each office. It uses Mitel IP Telephony for voice calls as well as providing VPN access for remote, home and mobile workers. Security and business continuity are integral to the network, which is being provided as a managed service by ntl:Telewest Business. Through the single, converged network infrastructure, Voice over IP (VoIP) technology will deliver free internal phone calls across the whole of Merlin.
www.ntltelewestbusiness.co.uk/ |
