House of Fraser is rolling out a unified voice and data network from Mitel. House of Fraser (HoF) network infrastructure manager Andrew Darley said the project was needed because HoF telephone switchboards are between 18 and 20 years old and its local area networks have been in place for 10 years.
The company looked at various solutions, but decided the cost of an integrated network is now low enough to justify the investment. Darley said: 'It is a phased project, we have got four stores fully working now and the first tranche should be completed by February.'
In terms of quality, he said: 'People in the stores probably don't even know the system has changed.' He added: 'We decided to go with voice-over Internet Protocol because we felt it would be cheaper. We have a manager and five staff to install and run equipment, and we have more than 6,000 devices hanging off the network. So we needed something that is easy to manage and scalable from 20 to 250 phones.'
The retailer drew up a shortlist of three suppliers - Cisco, Mitel and Siemens. Mitel's system was the closest fit to what the retailer needed.
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