Solution Spotlight: VoIP Solution: MPLS Project

Customer: International software development company
Location: Eastern Massachusetts

Highlights

The customer’s 12 North American locations were experiencing poor voice quality and dropped calls resulting in poor productivity, as well as customer dissatisfaction. MCPc developed an alternative VoIP solution, more compatible with existing Cisco VoIP framework.

Benefits

• Significant increase in customer satisfaction and employee productivity
• Reduction in day-to-day system administration, due to its superior performance and general ease-of-use.
• Scalable MPLS solution enables stress-free system expansion.
• Better redundancy between the two main U.S. locations.

Business Need

The customer had deployed Cisco VoIP in each of their 12 North American locations and was using VPN (Virtual Private Networks) over the Internet to connect the branch offices through inexpensive communication lines. The voice quality was poor and calls were dropping regularly, negatively affecting employee productivity and customer satisfaction. The customer came to MCPc seeking a new Cisco partner to analyze the issue and provide a solution that would improve call quality both among branch locations and with customers. Early in the evaluation, MCPc concluded that the major issue was the fact that Cisco VoIP is not supported over VPN.

Solution

MCPc recommended uninstalling the VPN and creating the new connections over MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) circuits. This would ensure higher compatibility with their existing Cisco VoIP framework and allow voice traffic to take priority over data. MCPc worked with the customer and their carrier services consultant to convert all connections to MPLS, with MCPc providing the VoIP solution implementation and design work.

To begin the process, MCPc did an inventory of equipment at each site, developed a national call plan, designed a complete network re-addressing scheme for IP addresses and presented a full project plan for turning on all sites nationally. MCPc coordinated with the customer’s carrier consultant and the communications carrier to plan and provide a uniform, coordinated transition to MPLS. Once installed, MCPc worked with the customer’s internal IT staff to go over day-to-day administration and maintenance.

Each location transfer took about 1.5-2 days of overnight work and was successfully implemented without end-user interruption. The nationwide implementation was completed in approximately eight months.

Results

The customer is no longer experiencing poor voice quality or dropped calls, resulting in better communications between branch offices and with customers. Overall customer satisfaction has improved and the day-to-day administration of the system is greatly reduced, due to the new VoIP solution’s superior performance and general ease-of-use.

The MPLS system also provides a more scalable solution for organization expansion. Adding a new location to the network requires minimal equipment to connect to headquarters.

MCPc also leveraged MPLS core capabilities to provide better redundancy between the two main U.S. locations. This means that one of these sites goes down, the system simply opts over to the other site without interrupting end-user experience at other locations.

MCPc is still working with this customer on general maintenance of the system and has become their go-to Cisco vendor for any future needs including plans to deploy MPLS internationally. If your business is seeking alternatives to its current VoIP solution, MCPc is available to learn about your challenges and develop a solution that best suits your needs.