ALM for UCaaS provider Netconnex

Netconnex offers private, hybrid and public cloud solutions to business customers in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. Part of the Netconnex service portfolio is the feature-rich Cisco-based Unified Communications as a Service. The company has a strong presence in the public sector and health insurance market. These are very demanding customers with strict requirements on privacy protection and security.

Challenge

Many of the Netconnex customers run distributed and flexible business operations. Their employees work on multiple sites and use flex desks. Still, they need to use their own telephone numbers, contact lists, features and profiles.

Netconnex offers customers the Cisco Extension Mobility feature to support this requirement. With Extension Mobility, a user can register himself on any desktop phone in the office using his username and a pin. After logging in, his own phone profile is loaded, he can be reached at his own extension number and can make calls using his own contacts and settings. However, using this feature is far from user-friendly as Jeroen Hermans, Netconnex CEO explains:

“Entering a username and pin via the telephone keypad is a rather cumbersome procedure, certainly if users have to do this every day or even multiple times a day. So, we were looking for a solution which could solve this for our customers, offering them an automated login experience.”

The solution

Netconnex selected the ALM for Cloud Communications solution of RSconnect to solve this issue. Using ALM the user doesn’t have to log into his desktop phone anymore. As soon as a user logs into his computer, the phone at his desktop is automatically logged in as well. There is no need to type in a username or pin. And when the user leaves, the phone is automatically logged out again. It simplifies the use of flex desks and extension mobility.

Mr. Hermans highlights an essential differentiator of the RSconnect ALM solution: “Netconnex was specifically looking for a solution which not only works with pc’s or laptops, but also with thin clients since many of our customers deploy virtual desktop infrastructures. Thin clients do not allow the installation of applications within the client OS. So, using a client-based solution to detect which desktop telephone is associated with the computer is not an option for us. RSconnect was the only vendor who offered a solution for this. Their Inventory Manager add-on performs a full remote detection process.”

The RSconnect Inventory Manager can be used in all scenario’s where there is no direct LAN connection between the computers and IP desktop phones. And also when Virtual Desktop Infrastructures, Container Based Virtualizations, Remote Desktop Services and wifi-based phones are used by customers.

The results

Netconnex offers its Unified Communication functionality as a cloud service. The ALM functionality and the Inventory Manager have been deployed as part of their cloud infrastructure and can be used for multiple customers. Mr. Hermans: “We were positively surprised by the flexibility of the RSconnect team. Our hosted unified collaboration offering has some specific requirements compared to regular on-premise solutions. RSconnect has proven to be very flexible to work with and quickly made the necessary adaptations to integrate their solution in our hosted environment.”

Currently the solution is being deployed with the first customer. Mr. Hermans:

“The solution is being deployed in two consecutive phases at a customer with 30 locations and approximately 2000 employees. We also expect additional customer rollouts soon. We have an active customer community and customers inform each other actively about new functionality they use and their experiences. ALM is certainly seen a positive add-on to our UCaaS offering.”