Clarkson Construction Relies on Communication Solution from NEC to Stay Connected
Company leverages NEC’s UNIVERGE®360 approach to help ensure effective communications throughout landmark bridge construction
NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. (NEC), a global leader in enterprise business communications, today announced that Clarkson Construction Company will use NEC’s Elite IPK II communications system to unify business communications while its team builds the kcICON - Christopher S. Bond Bridge in Kansas City, Mo.
Clarkson and a team of construction partners, collectively known as Paseo Corridor Constructors (PCC), won the bid to build the bridge in late 2007. To be most effective, Clarkson and PCC opened new offices in a building located near the construction site. To help Clarkson scale quickly, Batts Communications, an authorized NEC Diamond Associate and Clarkson’s trusted communications partner, recommended NEC’s Elite IPK II, a versatile communications system supporting both VoIP and traditional voice on a single processor. Clarkson is also utilizing ViewMail®, a cost-effective form of unified messaging, for the IPK II platform to help ensure business continuity.
“Being awarded the kcICON - Christopher S. Bond Bridge contract was a big milestone for our company and we needed a reliable communications installation to help us grow and focus on the task at hand. By connecting our two office locations and construction partners together, Batts Communications and NEC created a unified system that lets us seamlessly communicate, thereby saving our employees’ time and allowing us to increase our interoffice productivity,” said Rodney Tatum, IT manager, Clarkson Construction Company.
Developing solutions that can enable organizations to improve their effectiveness is part of NEC’s UNIVERGE®360 vision to unify business communications. By identifying Clarkson’s needs and the roles of each person on the project, NEC and Batts were able to put together a complete communication package that met both Clarkson’s business and technology requirements.
“Batts Communications and NEC have delivered telephony products to Clarkson for many years, so we were pleased when they chose our solutions to help them expand their operations. Through our UNIVERGE360 approach, we were able to develop this tailor-made, versatile telecommunications platform that allows Clarkson and PCC to execute communications for this project efficiently,” said Larry Levenberg, vice president of national channel sales, NEC Unified Solutions.
Each PCC office location has its own primary rate interface (PRI) trunk and the companies share outside lines over a VoIP connection. This solution provides redundancy and failover protection, as well as temporary scalability for either location in the case of a sudden spike in call volume. The EliteMail voice platform, running on a Linux® open-source operating system, makes ViewMail possible and enables users of the application to efficiently manage voice mails as .wav file messages. In addition, this configuration provides busy lamp field (BLF) indicators for each employee so users can determine if a co-worker is already on the phone before attempting to get in touch.
Installation of the IPK II at the kcICON bridge site began in February and has been fully operational since mid-April. Bridge construction is scheduled for completion 2011.
For information about NEC Unified Solutions, visit http://www.necunified.com.
For information about Clarkson Construction Company, visit http://www.clarksonconstruction.com.
For information about Batts Communications, visit http://www.battscom.net.