Integ wins choice Ernst & Young IP deal

Sydney voice-and-data integrator Integ Communications has won a deal to roll out IP telephony and unified communications to eight Australian sites at Big Four accountancy Ernst & Young.

Alcatel said in a statement that the contract to roll out a 6000-handset Alcatel IP and unified communications offering to Ernst & Young would connect some 3500 staff and is believed to be one of the largest IP telephony rollouts in Australia so far.

Ernst & Young would get a new IP-based communications infrastructure, harnessing Alcatel's OmniPCX Enterprise boxes, 6,000 handsets and OmniTouch Unified Communications software.
 
“Ernst & Young is embarking on a large-scale project to relocate offices in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, and as part of that move re-evaluated its communications options,” Alcatel said.

Integ would supply IP telephony networking and advanced communications applications, along with design, project management, deployment, training and ongoing support.

Stephen Arnold, chief information officer at Ernst & Young Australia, said the accountancy had already been using Alcatel product.

“After a complete study 18 months ago, we decided IP Telephony would support us and our needs.  In the end it was our satisfaction with the current Alcatel solution and the support from Integ, coupled with the fact that we wouldn't need to retrain the whole organisation that made the decision for us,” he said.

Arnold said the new infrastructure was expected to better support the accountancy's mobile workforce.
 
Alcatel OmniTouch Unified Communications combined email, voicemail and faxes into a single digital mailbox.  This capability would help simplify the administration of company distribution lists, Arnold said.

Ian Poole, chief executive at Integ, said Ernst and Young had to cater for a large mobile workforce. The new IP infrastructure was expected to make communications more efficient and cost-effective, he said.

Ernst & Young is one of the world's Big Four accountancy firms – along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. It has some 100,000 staff in 140 countries focusing mainly on auditing, taxation and transaction advisory services.