ICT service provider and first Belgian ‘Microsoft Voice Ready Partner’ Simac has upgraded the network and telecom infrastructure for Syneton, a developer of management software for service companies. Simac ICT Belgium has professionalised the storage and server infrastructure in Syneton’s data centre. The Microsoft Office Communications Server telephone software has been installed. This continuously regulates the telephony traffic for Syneton and its two sister organisations, Accountancy N.O.E.T.H. and the New Horizons Flanders training centre. Simac will also provide technical support services for a period of five years.
The moving of Syneton and its two sister companies consists of several different aspects. In the previous office in Mechelen, Syneton’s ICT architecture consisted of 14 servers and a classic telephone exchange. The company wanted to move these old servers and add new IP telephony. ICT partner Simac advised Syneton to reduce the 14 servers to two virtualised Microsoft servers (Hyper-V, or the latest generation) on new HP hardware, in combination with an HP storage system and the Microsoft telephone exchange. A Cisco network handles the data traffic. This ensures systems that are more stable, central back-up and lower energy consumption.
“The proposal from Simac was significantly cheaper in the medium term”, says Syneton director, Rudy Cleymans. “But more importantly there is now less chance of our applications crashing, because the virtual servers are de-duplicated. We can add new systems or integrate new applications more easily. Our systems are more powerful, to the satisfaction of our employees, who can now work with faster applications.”
The 50 Syneton and N.O.E.T.H. employees can go about their daily tasks in an innovative way. Thanks to the communication software on their computers, they can chat, make telephone calls, start video conversations and check to see if colleagues and partners are available. Syneton and N.O.E.T.H. also want to use the software to connect with their partners, to be able to communicate quickly via instant messaging. Simac has integrated the telephone software with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. When someone leaves a voicemail message for an employee, the employee receives an e-mail with an audio clip. They can play this audio clip directly in Outlook.
As a Microsoft partner, Syneton wants to start working with the latest Microsoft applications as quickly as possible. “We believe very strongly in Microsoft’s ‘office of the future’ concept for simple communication and a so-called clean desk. Our employees no longer have telephones; they have Plantronics headsets.”