Case Study: Scapa Technology

Scapa Technologies develops software that analyses the performance and scalability of IT systems under the stress of high-level usage. The company sells its products to leading blue chip organisations such as Intelligent Finance, VirginMobile and FranceTelecom.

The company operates internationally with two main sites - one in Edinburgh and one in New York. After September 11th 2001, Scapa lost its telephone communications between the two sites. As their VPN to the New York office was still operational, they contacted Cloud Communications Ltd, their PBX equipment supplier and Swyx reseller, to ask if they had an IP telephony solution that would also be compatible with their existing ISDN PBX

Aim of the project

The aim of the project was to provide IP telephony between the two principal sites as well as extend capability to a number of remote and mobile workers. The chosen IP telephony system would run in conjunction with the company's legacy ISDN based telephone system, so that part of the workforce would still be able to use traditional PBX based communications.

Solution

Scapa decided to trial the SwyxWare solution from Swyx Communications. A 60 day trial version of the SwyxWare CD was installed within ten minutes, and configured and working in a matter of hours. The system first went live in November 2001 and voice communications between Edinburgh and New York now rely on the Swyx solution. In addition, Swyx IP telephony is also being used by remote workers via ADSL & cable modems connections.

A roving sales team are also able to take advantage of IP telephony by setting up dial-up virtual IP connections from their laptop computers via the Internet, connecting to Scapa's secure VPN. Although the BT ADSL network does not support QOS (Quality of Service) prioritisation, the Swyx system still keeps 'jitter' down to a minimum. It is recommended that remote workers that are connected via ADSL operate with the lowest 'contention' ratio possible to avoid excessive traffic having an adverse effect on voice quality.

Between the New York and Edinburgh offices, Scapa has a 2 megabit leased line connection to the Internet from its Edinburgh office and a T1 line at its NY office. There is no direct connection between the offices with communications being transferred via a secure VPN. ISPs are carefully chosen dependent on high standard of peering arrangements.

Benefits and special features

The overall benefits of the installation have been far-reaching not only providing significant cost savings, but also providing superior features to the traditional PBX.

In Scapa's case the most attractive features included call recording, 'Follow-Me' voice messaging and the ability to send a voice mail message to another user via e-mail. In particular, the call recording feature enabled the company to monitor 'contractual' telephone conversations.

The call divert and messaging capabilities of the system have also proved conducive to the business. Many of Scapa's employees are spread geographically, so the ability to seamlessly divert calls means that remote workers are always available for customers and colleagues so they can react quickly to any requests. Scapa has even found that IP telephony can help retain staff! For example, if personnel are forced to move location, they can still continue to work for the company, even if they are based in another country. This type of flexibility saves the company time and money in recruiting and re-training new staff.

The cost of the SwyxWare system was recovered within the first two months and Scapa estimates that it is now saving £4,000 plus per month as a result of using Swyx IP telephony. Despite their initial concerns, the company has been astounded by the voice quality provided by the system and its excellent handling of 'jitter' in the event of adverse network conditions.

What the customer says

VP of strategic development at Scapa, John Snaidowski commented: "As a significant proportion of our business relies on telephony for both national and international calls, the question of voice quality is paramount. The Swyx solution offers high voice quality - comparable with traditional circuit switched technology."

"The main benefits are flexibility in working. You can phone three digits and get hold of a colleague in New York or Edinburgh, or if they're not there you can divert to voice mail and leave them an e-mail. It's all the same - just data."

"Making international calls is a doddle because everything is part of one global system. If we wanted to open other offices elsewhere in the World, it would be child's play to extend the schema and easy to add new starters to the system."

Future

Scapa intends to extend the system as the company grows and is delighted that upgrades can be done electronically and be up and running with 24 hours.