IP Telephony

Global Crossing (News - Alert), an IP solutions provider, has announced that it is providing Natural England with end-to-end telephony services across 44 sites and 2,500 users in the U.K.

 

This latest announcement aims to help the organization meet its aggressive targets to shrink its carbon footprint and to bring all of its disparate telephony systems together.

 

Formed in October 2006, Natural England says that it exists to conserve the natural environment for its intrinsic value, the well-being and enjoyment of people and the economic prosperity.

 

The solution from Global Crossing is expected to demonstrate how next-generation communications services can deliver cost savings and, most importantly, cut carbon footprints.

 

Global Crossing’s officials said that the company plans to install an IP VPN, which will deliver Hosted IP Telephony and managed videoconferencing among other services, including all associated equipment.

 

The installation is expected to facilitate the migration of all of Natural England’s existing equipment onto one platform, along with promoting the use of collaboration services in Natural England’s business.

 

Officials said that the consolidation enabled by Global Crossing will merge three telephony estates.

 

“On examining how to merge our telephony estates, we conducted in-depth analysis on the best approach, best supplier and benefits we could deliver back to the organization,” said Barney Smith, head of knowledge management and Information Services at Natural England.

 

He also said that his organization estimates that the cost of this installation will be approximately 1 million pounds Sterling, with a potential return of 3.2 million pounds over the next five years.

 

“Most of this will come from reduced travel expenditures, while videoconferencing will yield savings of 20,000 man-days and two million miles of car journeys,” Smith added.

 

Anthony Christie, managing director for EMEA at Global Crossing, said that his company is committed to help Natural England achieve its mission to cut its carbon footprint by at least 50 percent by 2010.

 

“With travel accounting for 68 percent of Natural England's carbon footprint, Global Crossing's collaboration services offer an extremely reliable, robust and cost efficient alternative for communicating face to face, while keeping traffic off the roads and enabling employees to make far better use of their time,” he added.