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RoweCom Deploys Innovative 3Com NBX 100 Telephone System to Bolster Growing Knowledge Services Business SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 22, 2000-- World-Leading Provider of Knowledge Resources for Fortune 1000 Firms Saves Costs and Boosts Productivity by Standardizing on Advanced LAN Telephone Technology 3Com Corporation (Nasdaq:COMS) today announced that Cambridge, MA-based RoweCom, the leader in empowering knowledge-based communities to work smarter, is deploying the 3Com(R) NBX(R) 100 Communications System to provide premium-quality telephone communications over its 3Com Ethernet local area networks (LANs). Citing tremendous cost savings over conventional telephony and PBX systems, RoweCom plans to install NBX telephone systems at its sites in six countries, providing productivity-enhancing features for its 780 employees, such as CTI (computer-telephone integration), on-screen dialing from popular contact management applications and the integration of voicemail and email. Founded in 1994, and a pioneer in business-to-business e-commerce, RoweCom develops and operates global web-based solutions that enable knowledge-based communities to purchase, manage, and use comprehensive knowledge resources and e-content such as magazines, newspapers, journals and books. The firm provides 200,000 titles online, as well as 13 million books via RoweCom partner, barnesandnoble.com. RoweCom`s clients range from industry leaders such as PriceWaterhouse Coopers and KPMG Peat Marwick to academic libraries. The company has subsidiaries in Canada, England, France, Spain and Australia, Korea, as well as several offices across the U.S. The 3Com NBX system allows RoweCom to leverage its Ethernet LANs by using the networks` cabling to support telephone services. By converging data and voice traffic into its existing infrastructure, which is based on high-speed SuperStack switches, the firm eliminates the need for separate wiring for its telephones. The NBX telephones connect to any network port, providing users with robust voice connections to any other phone in the company or elsewhere. "Integrating the telephones into the computer network makes perfect business sense," said Walter Crosby, vice president and chief technology officer at RoweCom. "By relying on our LAN for telephony, we simply plug phones into the network whenever we need to add or move employees. We no longer have the costs or hassles of scheduling expensive technicians to rewire our facility every time we need to change a phone. For a fast-moving company like ours, that`s a continually-appreciated advantage." New Phone Technology Maximizes Productivity and Minimizes Expenses RoweCom depends on the many capabilities of its NBX phone system to enhance productivity and ensure the timely delivery of vital business communications. The firm relies on the NBX Unified Messaging, enabled by the system`s CTI capabilities, to merge each employee`s voicemail and email into one application. With this feature, users quickly and conveniently retrieve all of their messages from within the Microsoft Outlook contact management application. The NBX Automated Attendant automatically directs calls to their destinations when a receptionist is unavailable and users deploy the call routing capability to forward phone calls to specified phones. Furthermore, the company plans to implement the NBX automatic number identification, which will identify a caller`s telephone number and immediately display the caller`s records on a computer screen. "This will improve the responsiveness and effectiveness of our customer service considerably," said Crosby. "What`s truly impressive about the NBX product is that with all of its cost-savings and powerful business features, installation and management couldn`t be simpler," added Crosby. To manage its NBX telephones, the firm uses the browser-based NBX NetSet(TM) administration utility. By accessing this easy-to-use tool with any standard Web browser, employees control the entire phone system, easily managing the moving or adding of phones and monitoring all incoming and outgoing telephone activity. A Competitive Advantage Over PBXs and Traditional Telephony Systems RoweCom`s need for an NBX system originated when the firm recently relocated to a new facility. The company had been using a traditional Nortel PBX telephone system, but the cost of implementing a newer PBX system was prohibitively expensive, particularly since the current technologies were incompatible with the legacy devices. "We couldn`t migrate our old telephones to the new system," said Crosby. "We realized that a LAN-based telephone strategy would be far less expensive than a PBX, yet would give us the high-quality phone service we require for our business." After examining other telephony solutions, RoweCom turned to the 3Com NBX 100 Communications System. "The NBX phones are a higher quality design and more full-featured," explained Crosby. "Moreover, key NBX system capabilities such as voicemail were superior." Last summer, RoweCom deployed an NBX chassis into its LAN and installed 60 NBX handsets at this site. Today, every incoming and outgoing telephone call is handled by the NBX system. RoweCom installed an NBX chassis and over 100 phones at its Westwood, MA, facility and plans to install a second chassis. The firm also deployed an NBX chassis with 100 phones at its business office in London, Ontario, Canada. "The NBX platform`s voicemail capabilities have been a great enhancement for our Canadian staff," added Crosby. The firm intends to install NBX phones at its European locations and at the home offices of its sales force. "The cost of NBX systems will be less than we`re paying each year for maintenance of our current phone systems," said Crosby. "3Com has always been a leader in networking technology, but now, thanks to its NBX technology, it is poised to be a leader in telephony," concluded Crosby. "With its clear-cut advantages over conventional phone systems, including pricing, features, flexibility and management, the NBX system sells itself. LAN telephony is the future of voice communications and the NBX system is the future of LAN telephony." |
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| aus der Diskussion: | 3com news! (neu) |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | Pitu (23.08.00 15:33:48) |
| Beitrag: | 26 von 124 (ID:1643905) |
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