March 7, 2005

By Jenny Carless, News@Cisco

ING Chile is part of the ING Group, a global finance and insurance institution of Dutch origin. In Chile, the company has experienced significant growth over the past few years. In order to improve communications significantly, both internally and with customers, it decided to incorporate IP telephony from Cisco Systems.

ING Chile has five corporate buildings in Santiago, 117 branches (33 in the metropolitan region and 84 elsewhere), 4,000 employees and more than 1.5 million clients who demand attentive service. Such a wide-reaching presence required a reliable, state-of-the-art communications infrastructure.

Integrating Voice and Data

The company wanted to consolidate its voice and data platforms in order to provide better customer care and reduce overall communications costs. An indispensable prerequisite was that the implementation had to occur rapidly, so as not to interrupt service.

In revamping ING's technological platform, three projects were submitted for consideration: two types of private branch exchange (PBX) technology as well as a third alternative, Internet Protocol (IP) telephony. ING Chile evaluated the alternatives and selected an IP telephony implementation with Cisco Systems technology, CMET (a national telephony company) as the operator and Magenta (a Cisco Chile partner) as the integrator.

ING believes this to be the largest IP telephony project in Chile to date.

Rodrigo Ruiz, Communications and Security manager at ING Chile, describes the project as a true challenge. "There were seven telephone switches at our headquarters," he explains. "To call from one building to another, the call had to go out to the public network, so an important goal for us was to avoid that external phase and to perform as an independent telephone exchange."

The project envisaged that access to the public network be distributed rather than centralized, in order to maintain high availability. This was achieved successfully: in the current scenario, if one building fails, the other four can still route calls.

To integrate the offices onto a single platform, "the first task was to design and implement the high-speed backbone interconnecting the buildings," Ruiz says. "We set up a ring for the five corporate buildings using Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches, and we added two additional Catalyst 6500 switches to close the ring."

Next, ING Chile integrated its branch networks. Previously, the company had four unconnected data networks. But now, as a result of the new installation, they are connected on line with the corporate buildings. This has considerably reduced the cost of intra-company billed local services, which Ruiz conservatively estimates at 20 percent of traffic.

To solve the problems that might arise as a result of power failures, the company selected a "hybrid" solution. An in-line power switch was installed on every floor, where there are nearly 50 users. The installation is designed so that administrative assistants and managers can communicate in the event of a power outage; and during outages, the telephones of other users are operational in a matter of seconds.

Renovating ING's Communications

The stars of the implementation, according to Ruiz, are 1,400 Cisco phones: Cisco IP telephones 7960 for administrative assistants, Cisco IP telephones 7940 for managers and Cisco IP telephones 7910 for other users. These telephones support a whole new range of applications, while performing basic telephone functions.

At first, ING Chile considered using analog telephones. But, as Ruiz explains, "we decided to invest a bit more money and purchase all of the IP equipment."

"The truth is that it was an easy decision," he continues. "Compared to analog telephones, even the simplest IP phone we purchased is a significant advance."

IP Telephony Goes into Action

Project execution was very quick. The implementation began in December 2002, and by January 2003, a large portion of the project was ready.

ING Chile recognized that user training on the new technology was fundamental for success. Beginning one month before installation, employees began receiving information on IP telephony and the new telephones. Training was then undertaken on a floor-by-floor basis, supported by a mobile laboratory that included a switch, the three types of Cisco IP telephones purchased and a PC.

"An important success factor was getting the users to interact with this technology through the mobile laboratory before the telephone sets were installed on their desks," Ruiz points out.

The payback period for the investment is estimated at 28 to 36 months, and the new technology has provided significant benefits for ING Chile.

"We've been able to reduce telephone communications costs by eliminating billed local services among the corporate buildings," Ruiz says. "There has also been an increase in productivity, thanks to unified messaging services, the centralized directory and the use of intelligent IP telephones. Furthermore, customer care has improved."

Jenny Carless is a freelance writer based in Santa Cruz, CA.