LONDON June 1, 2000 - Sports Soccer, a privately owned retailer of sports clothing and merchandise has chosen Isogon Networks and Cisco Systems to install a fully integrated Voice and Data network in Sports Soccer's central offices in Dunstable and Brussels and throughout their 90 branches. As one of the first companies in the United Kingdom to implement IP (Internet Protocol) Telephony across a multi-site environment, Sports Soccer will benefit from a reduction in both installation and ongoing support costs by using a single network for both voice and data.
IP Telephony utilises the "defacto-standard" IP protocol to transport voice calls across an Enterprise Data network. To support the strict delay characteristics imposed by compressed voice traffic and guarantee excellent call quality, sophisticated QOS (Quality of Service) mechanisms within the Cisco routers are used. Voice traffic is therefore treated as another network application and by building a "Converged" network, voice connectivity between sites is available, avoiding the toll costs of the traditional PSTN network.
In the #900k deal, Cisco, in conjunction with partner Isogon Networks, will implement "Clustered" Cisco Call Manager 3.0 IP PBX's in Sports Soccer's two central offices. "Clustering" provides added resilience for voice connectivity in the event of server failure. In addition, over 100 Cisco model 7910 IP phones will be installed at the central locations. Connectivity to the remote sites will be based on a Managed Frame Relay service, with ISDN providing back-up in the event of circuit failure. Sports Soccers ninety-two retail outlets will have between three and five model 7910 IP Phones in each location, creating real time data and voice flows between central sites and retail outlets.
"The previous network system we had in place was not Year 2000 compliant and was becoming increasingly expensive to maintain and support". Commented John Ashley, IT Director, Sports Soccer. "This network gives us the ability to make toll free calls between our Stores and Head Office, as well as toll free international calls between Dunstable and our Central office in Brussels. By installing an open standards IP based infrastructure we will benefit from ease of management and implementation of future applications. This is an important breakthrough for Sports Soccer, as communication between sites is an essential part of our day to day business".
Name, Job title, Cisco said, "Sports Soccer's data infrastructure was previously based on individual dial connections to each of its stores and was not scalable. With the new system in place, Sports Soccer will see a great reduction in both maintenance costs and the cost of calls between stores. The system also incorporates open standards architecture for any future application development and deployment it may choose to make".
