As director of operations for The Mumford Company, Jackie Wilder performs a delicate balancing act. She and her team juggle the firm’s complex voice and data network infrastructure, extending from its headquarters in Newport News, Va., to offices in Atlanta, Chicago Dallas and Lynch- burg. IPC Technologies is her safety net. IPC has become a trusted resource for the hotel brokerage firm, assisting with the design and implementation of network and telecom solutions,as well as providing ongoing maintenance and support services. For Wilder, IPC is a sounding board and a steadying hand whenever she needs one. “IPC serves as an extension of our IT efforts,”she said.“I have a strong IT background but IT is just one segment of my responsibilities as director of operations. It’s just not feasible for me to take care of our infrastructure and do everything that every user needs. That’s why we depend so heavily on IPC.”

‘Natural Fit’
The relationship began when The Mumford Company started searching for a new telephone system. The firm had an older PBX but wanted a system that could integrate its offices around the country and cut long-distance costs. Wilder recognized that this project would entail more than just installing a new phone system. The Mumford Company needed server and network upgrades as well, and Wilder wanted an IT firm that could handle the project from start to finish. “We decided to move to an IP telephony system, and the ShoreTel IP Phone System was recommended to us as an excellent product. That was the glue that brought everything together,” she said.“We needed a vendor who not only knew this telephone system extremely well but could help us implement and manage our other hardware and network systems. “IPC seemed to be the natural fit. They are ShoreTel experts and they are a strong IT support provider.”

Step By Step
The first step was to determine the best way to upgrade the firm’s widearea network. “Our remote offices were linked to headquarters through a VPN, and we knew that wouldn’t suffice going forward,” Wilder said. “So we spent a lot of time researching various alternatives. Do we want to go with some type of frame relay system? Do we want to do a full MPLS system? What are the pros and cons?” The Mumford Company went with the MPLS solution, and now has three full T1 lines serving its various locations, as each location comes into the corporate offices across individual T1s. IPC Technologies helped coordinate the MPLS implementation, deployed new, more powerful servers, and re-commissioned some of the older servers for other uses. The IPC team then installed the ShoreTel IP Phone System in the firm’s headquarters location, and systematically rolled it out to each remote office. “Any project of that magnitude has its ‘opportunities,’ so to speak, so we did it in segments starting with the corporate office,” said Wilder. “IPC was there every step of the way. The project manager was phenomenal, and the entire team rolled up their sleeves and made sure everything worked.”

Making Costs Disappear
The Mumford Company has been very pleased with the ShoreTel solution. The system provides many key features that the firm’s old PBX lacked, and is easy to learn, use and administer. “With our old system, you had to call in the vendor if you needed to add or move an extension,” Wilder said. “Now my phone administrator just logs into the ShoreTel Web client and with the click of a few buttons she’s good to go.” Best of all, the system saves The Mumford Company a lot of time and money. “The long-distance savings have been incredible, several thousand dollars a month,” Wilder said. “And I don’t have to dial 10 digits to reach someone in another location — I can just hit a button. That’s probably been the most beneficial to our customers. In the past, if a customer called the corporate office wanting to speak with someone in Dallas, we’d have to ask them to hang up and call the Dallas office. Now we can transfer them.”

Reducing Risk
IPC Technologies helps keep everything up and running through a combination of remote monitoring and onsite support. Wilder says it’s simpler and more cost-effective to rely on IPC than to try to hire comparable staff. “IT folks tend to specialize in a particular application or network framework and I just couldn’t have a staff big enough to have all the knowledge in-house that IPC has,” she said. “I can have an Outlook or Exchange problem, a server problem, or a NAS backup system problem — all I have to do is call IPC.” Balancing today’s complex technologies can be tricky, even for firms with in-house IT personnel. IPC Technologies has the skills The Mumford Company needs to support its strategic initiatives. “We’re very grateful for the team we have at IPC — they have put together a great crew for us,” Wilder said. “I have and will continue to recommend IPC to other companies.”

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