Wallstreet Electronica

Asterisk-Based SIP IP-PBX

Overview

With three locations in South Florida and over 100 independent brokers worldwide, Wallstreet Electronica (WSE) was looking for a way to make communications within its company and its brokers more efficient and cost effective. "We had old phone systems that were expensive to upgrade," said Francisco Otalvaro, Principal and CEO of the firm.

"We were increasing the number of brokers and they were located all over the US. We wanted to have our brokers and their clients access one centralized system were inter-office communications could be done over our WAN or the internet and save us from the long-distance toll charges we were paying. We needed to do this easily and cost-effectively. In order to offer a more compelling service offering to its brokers WSE decided that it needed to enhance its communications system.

Challenge

WSE recognized the criticality of superior communications services for its everyday business transactions. The company was looking for a telecommunications services provider that offered the best combination of local telecommunications services, local access agreements, and a mix of special and value-added services for its brokers spread out throughout the world. WSE expected the vendor to provide improved telecommunications functionality, higher reliability, and a significantly lower level of total cost. Excellent service and support were essential in the consideration. WSE wanted a vendor that would also display an ability and willingness to create a strategic partnership between the two companies.

Solution

WSE chose Siprack Systems (SS) because they offered a solution that would combine its voice and data network and allow upgradability by integrating new technologies and applications cost effectively, expanding the lifecycle of their existing equipment and reducing capital expenditures when they choose to adopt new technology and applications.

Implementation

SS performed a detailed network assessment, develop network diagrams, installed LAN/WAN equipment, an IP-PBX and voicemail system at the company's corporate data center. SS connected its brokers to the IP-PBX through their existing DSL or T1 data network. The centralization of services is made possible through Siprack's Hosted IP-PBX based on Asterisk located at SS's data center in Miami, FL. The system is a full-featured business telephone system that supports both traditional circuit-switched time division multiplexed switching and VOIP connectivity. SS installed 50 Cisco 7960 IP Phones in various locations.

Results

The benefits to Wallstreet Electronica were immediate. The company's remote offices were connected to its headquarters location over managed T1 data circuits so they can use call processing and voicemail features without needing their own local PBX or voicemail systems. This saves them money in capital purchases. Intra-company calls are carried on the spare capacity of the data WAN, avoiding the public toll network and additional long distance charges. With a single architecture, this business now manages all of its multimedia equipment and services centrally with one group of technicians and one set of procedures. In addition, brokers spread out all over the world can seamlessly transfer and forward calls internally and externally, utilize standard voicemail across locations, and benefit from four-digit dialing between branches.

New employees can handle moves, adds, and changes themselves since IP telephones can be moved around as easily as a personal computer. In fact, they are realizing a 20 percent savings in network administration alone. Other benefits include a reduction in the costs of features, functions and applications for remote office locations. These savings will start to add up as improved and more cost-effective applications are built on top of the IP platform to make the network more robust and more functional.