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Cisco and BellSouth Bring IP Technology to Daytona Beach Community CollegeCisco and BellSouth engaged the proven principles of teamwork to win a lucrative account at Daytona Beach Community College (www.dbcc.cc.fl.us), one of Florida's leading educational institutions. "Cisco is a great business partner for us," says Dennis Lyman, an account manager for BellSouth. "I knew that recommending Cisco would mean the right solution for the customer, and a smooth implementation for us." DBCC prides itself in exceeding expectations, leveraging technology to stay on the cutting edge of education. The College's Advanced Technology Center (ATC) is a prime example of DBCC's commitment to helping students reach their maximum potential. The state-of-the-art learning facility uses IP technology to streamline voice, data and video communication-and to prepare students for work in high-tech careers. Early in the planning stages of the ATC, Lyman met with senior administrators at DBCC. The college was using analog PBX switches at four of its primary campuses, and was considering PBX switches for the new ATC facility. Lyman captured the attention of DBCC's vice president with a lucid question. "I asked them why they were going to use outdated technology to build a center that is supposed to showcase new technology," he recalls. Further discussions revealed that DBCC was unhappy with its aging PBX infrastructure. The college asked Lyman for his recommendation. "Working with our BellSouth communications staff, we determined that Cisco's voice over IP technology would be a perfect fit for the Advanced Technology Center," he explains. After extensive research to determine the needs of the new facility, Lyman presented a proposal for the Cisco IP solution. "We went to a lot of planning meetings with DBCC," says Lyman. "We wanted to be certain that all the requirements would be satisfied." For example, DBCC was concerned about the ability of the new IP system to interface with its existing PBX network. "They wanted to be able to pick up the phone at the new facility and dial somebody at another campus," Lyman continues. "Cisco helped integrate the new and old systems to meet the campus requirements. The Cisco team has been fantastic to work with." Today, the Advanced Technology Center is a showcase network, delivering IP telephony, IP-based television feeds, and Internet communications. The center leverages Cisco AVVID architecture to deliver voice, video, and integrated data over a modern infrastructure based on Cisco switching and routing technology. Because the ATC not only focuses on technology education, but also depends on efficient communications technology to deliver that education, a large amount of internetworking gear was required to create the new facility-leading to an abundance of business for Cisco and BellSouth. Individual Internet and network connections, advanced science labs, a media center, computer labs and a distance-learning lab all utilize the Cisco IP solution. "It was very fulfilling to see the ideas that we developed with the staff at the college work as expected," says Lyman. "Everyone was extremely happy with the results." DBCC has four more campus networks that will also be converted to IP, raising the specter of more potential business for the partners. Lyman says that the ongoing success of the relationship with DBCC is largely due to the partnership BellSouth and Cisco share behind the scenes. "When technology partners work as a unified team, the liaison is transparent to customers," he says. "If we have a problem that we are unable to resolve internally, Cisco serves as our second tier of support to resolve the issue. Customers don't have to worry about who is doing what--they just know we are getting the job done and delivering the results as promised." |
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Editors: Lorraine Maurice |
Ellen M. Chandra |
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