NetStar Australia Implements IP Solution for Wesley College

NetStar Australia, a leading IP network and managed solutions provider today announced that it has been chosen by Wesley College, the largest independent school in Australia, to completely replace their legacy LAN/WAN/Voice infrastructure with a state-of-the-art Cisco converged networking solution.

The project, valued in excess of $1.5 million, will include IP handsets, soft phones and wireless IP Phones with a total of approximately 1200 devices and is being rolled out across all four campuses of the school. It will deliver a new Cisco data network capable of delivering Voice, Video and Data, with wireless technology allowing staff and students at Wesley College to move freely about the campus and retain access to the network.

All 600 staff and 3200 students will be supported by the new infrastructure, which includes extensive Cisco 802.11 wireless access points as well as desktop video-conferencing, and a number of full video-conferencing room systems. The converged network will replace an aging data network and PABX, providing an effective voice network that will deliver greater flexibility and mobility coupled with the cost savings gained by running a single converged network.

“Our phone system was failing,” said Jon Hickman, Chief Operating Officer, Wesley College. “So the College Council conducted a thorough evaluation of the options and selected the VoIP solution based on price, the range of new services available and the new features VoIP can deliver.”

“The opportunity to integrate our voice and data networks also provides long term financial and business benefits to the College, and we are satisfied that a VoIP system can offer the reliability, performance and security that Wesley requires with minimal risk,” said Mr Hickman.

"The College reviewed a number of suppliers and NetStar had the solution, experience and scale we were looking for, as well as a highly professional approach to project management and ongoing service delivery,” said Mr Hickman. “NetStar's proven ability as a major Cisco solutions integrator was also highly regarded,” he said.

The converged network will bring many benefits to staff and student. It will enable staff to be contacted and to retrieve voice messages at any time within the wireless environment, irrespective of their location on the campus. “With a Cisco SoftPhone running on a laptop, staff can take their extension number and receive calls wherever they are connected to the network” said Hayden Dunne, Senior Account Manager, NetStar Australia.

Staff and students will be able to communicate between campuses by utilising Desktop Video conferencing. Video-conferencing enables staff to share resources, classes and curriculum planning more effectively eliminating the need to travel between campuses for meetings.

“Wesley students will have a truly flexible environment, one which will allow them to work on their notebooks wherever they choose on campus, without being fixed to a cable or an access point. We want a network which supports our kids and keeps their focus and energy on achieving their goals. We don’t want the tools getting in their way,” said Hickman.

ABOUT NETSTARLOGICALIS

NetstarLogicalis is part of the Logicalis Group, which is a division of Datatec Limited (DTC), a $4.2 billion multi-national Group listed on the AIM market of the LSE and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. NetstarLogicalis offers a complete range of end-to-end solutions for converged data, security and Data Centre infrastructure. NetstarLogicalis’ state-of-the-art network management facilities help customers reduce the cost of managing their infrastructure. Our goal is to help customers better run their business, leveraging our proven networking and Data Centre expertise and experience.

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