New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Deploys IP Telephony Solution from CSC, Nortel Networks

Business Wire, Sept 29, 2004

SYDNEY, Australia -- Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC) has teamed up with Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT)(TSX:NT) to deliver the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Primary Industries (DPI) an AUS$1 million communications upgrade in metropolitan and regional NSW. This deployment is one of the first large IP (Internet Protocol) telephony implementations to go into the NSW Government.

The communications upgrade covers the relocation of DPI's Mineral Resources head office from St. Leonards in Sydney to Maitland near the Hunter Valley and includes communication links between the remaining 14 metropolitan and regional offices and a central server hosting facility in Redfern.

DPI was formed on July 1, 2004 with the amalgamation of Mineral Resources, NSW Agriculture, NSW Fisheries and State Forests of NSW.

Mike Webster, manager of ITS, Department of Primary Industries, Mineral Resources, said that the major shift was initiated by the intended move of the Mineral's head office from Sydney to Maitland. This move prompted a re-think of the way in which services were delivered to the client base and the opportunity for Mineral's staff to access their information sources including telephony. The subsequent amalgamation of four departments further illustrated the benefits that could accrue from flexible networking.

"The amalgamation and relocation created the need for a complete upgrade of our network and communications infrastructure, prompted by a business process improvement and software engineering project that resulted in DPI - Minerals standardising on browser-based business applications," Webster said.

CSC, a member of Nortel Networks Global Solutions Partner program, won a tender to design and install a telephony and data network using proven, highly-reliable equipment from Nortel Networks.

"There were numerous benefits for the DPI in deploying IP telephony instead of a traditional communications system," said Iain McGregor, director, CSC Network Engineering Services. "The collective experience of CSC and Nortel Networks in voice, data and converged networks was key to delivering the DPI's required solution. Along with that, we understand the design issues involved in developing a solution that is hardened against failure."

Webster said the DPI also favoured the proposal from CSC and Nortel Networks because of the strong relationship between the two global organisations. "The opportunity to have a cohesive end-to-end integration was the most impressive selling point," he said.

The solution was designed by CSC and developed with multiple layers of redundancy to meet the service availability levels required by the DPI. By using Nortel Networks voice over IP (VoIP) handsets connected to a wide area network (WAN) made up of intelligent IP-enabled communications servers, the design enables DPI staff to move between branches and offices and have their telephone profiles move with them. The same infrastructure also supports the use of laptop-based 'soft phones' that fully duplicate physical handsets when laptops are connected to the network.

The IP telephony solution includes Nortel Networks core and edge switch products, virtual private networking (VPN) switches, and IP telephony equipment including handsets.

"Essentially, the network represents a completely converged solution that brings together the benefits of voice and multimedia communications over a robust, fault-tolerant data network," said Steve Wood, president, Nortel Networks Australia and New Zealand. "For government departments like the DPI, a converged network not only frees up the channels of communications between staff and the public, but more importantly reduces operating expenditures at a time when capital spending and return on investment are paramount to continued investment in information technology."

The DPI also needed to connect its central and regional servers over a high-speed communications line. The department hosts its central servers at the AC3 data centre in Redfern, which connects the branch network to the Internet.

"In effect we've set up a centralised voice system," Webster said. "Nortel Networks Contivity switches at each regional site give us secure access to these locations and connect Succession boxes at each of the branches to the central system in Maitland. The system is fully redundant to the extent that if the head office fails, the regional offices can still talk to each other over the IP WAN."

"The Baystack switches provide 10/100 connectivity to the network edge and connect and power the IP handsets for branch staff, while the 5510 switches provide high-end users with gigabit access to the network," Webster said. "This not only gives us the flexibility of remote access and work-from-anywhere roaming, but has broken down the boundaries of how we do business with advanced features such as CallPilot unified messaging that integrates voice, fax and video with e-mail.

"Over time, running our communications and business services over a converged IP-enabled network will help us lower operating costs and accelerate service delivery, especially now that improved broadband availability in rural and regional areas and lower pricing have brought IP communications services to mainstream Australia," Webster said.