Atlantique
Telecom’s Moov, an Etisalat-owned unit, has announced that it has selected
video conferencing and telephony solutions from Polycom and Digium Asterisk to
help them increase communications between its offices in Ivory Coast, Central
African Republic, Togo, Niger, Gabon, and Benin in West and Central Africa as
well as increase communications with the Etisalat office in the UAE. The system
will be used for high level collaborative management and executive meetings.
“At a time when organisations are
streamlining operations and cutting costs, video conferencing and IP telephony
allows them to maintain a high-level of communications without the additional
costs of travel expenses,” pointed out Ronald Hajj, regional manager for FVC
Levant. “Moov was looking for a solution that would allow the management to
communicate better with its remote offices and this solution allows them to do
just this in a cost-effective manner.”
Moov will install six Polycom HDX 7002
with HD codec, Eagle Eye HD camera and HDX mic array 6 at its six remote offices with a Polycom HDX 9004 HD codec
with 8-way multipoint and 2 microphones
at its main office in the Ivory Coast. In addition, it will install
Digium-Asterisk IP PBX Switchvox SMB AA300 Appliance with 45 silver subscriptions
and Polycom’s SoundPoint IP 330, IP 550, IP 650 and IP 670 desktop phones.
Aboubacar Coulibaly, group information
systems director for Atlantique Telecom, said, “We looked at several solutions
and found that the Polycom and Digium-Asterisk solution would help us reduce
travel and the cost of international calls between Moov branches in Africa, enhance
time management and deliver internal training cost-effectively.”
Moov opted for this combined IP
telephony platform from Polycom and Digium-Asterisk because it allows any
person within Moov to be connected with an extension regardless of which
country he is based in, with all the features of a very professional PBX
including advanced voicemail.
The deal was signed during Gitex this year and the
implementation is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2009.
