Beca replaces PABX with Microsoft Lync platform

Beca Group choses Microsoft Lync platform with Windows 7 for unified communications solution

Beca Group has chosen Microsoft Lync platform with Windows 7 for its unified communications solution.

CIO Robin Johansen says Lync will replace the existing telecommunications system, which was based on a Nortel PABX, and lacked the functionality and flexibility the business was beginning to need.

“With an increasing number of our employees off site and in different offices at any given time, as well as the trend toward cross-border working as we seek to make better use of our multinational talent pool, we found we needed greater flexibility and agility from our telecommunications system,” says CIO Robin Johansen.

Beca is a large Asia-Pacific engineering and consultancy services company with a network of 2500 employees. Johansen says the company had been considering a new unified communications solution for five years.

Beca worked with Microsoft partner Gen-i to design and install the unified communications platform.

Beca’s Polycom and Tandberg video conferencing technology were integrated during a phased implementation programme.

Beca plans to build on Lync to include the business reporting capability. The company will be able to produce trend reports, which can assist with, for example, capacity planning for reception, or in functional areas, to show how many users utilised a particular feature.

Maintenance costs for the legacy PABX system have reduced by $99,000 yearly. Web conference savings are predicted at $24,000 a year, and audio conferencing at $180,000 a year.