A greater desire for a mobile student base combined with a reduction in operational costs has driven the University of Western Sydney to make the switch to unified communications.
The $1.2 million system has been launched university-wide, with campuses in Parramatta, Campbelltown, Bankstown, Blacktown, Penrith, Hawkesbury and Penrith able to access the system.
IT infrastructure manager at the university, Paul Hardaker, said the move was about consolidation as much as providing better support to staff and students.
“Upgrading the communications network provides us with the opportunity to consolidate the communications infrastructure across all of our campuses, reduce our operational costs and better support our staff and students,” he said in a statement.
“This new system is able to support the growth and changing needs of the university.”
The new network, consisting of two NEC servers and other architecture, has the capacity to support some 4000 users and has a fully converged IP telephony infrastructure.
The NEC network allowed the university to integrate its existing handsets with new data and voice infrastructure, and will provide greater student flexibility, a statement from NEC said.
“Unified communications features such as follow-me numbers, unified messaging and presence bring greater value and flexibility to employees,” the statement said.
“Staff will soon be able to log into a phone from anywhere on any campus and use their number and address book, allowing them to work productively from any location.”
The news comes as NEC recently announced its transition to being a services business, and as the company signed the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) on as a client in December last year.
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