New design for telephony platforms uses the robust Khomp EBS.
The Ministry of Education of Argentina is a body of the Executive Branch that defines the policies and strategies of the country’s educational system. One of its responsibilities is to ensure compliance with the provisions established by law through the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of educational policies and programs.
The Argentine educational system has more than 40,000 educational establishments and, among them, are more than 100 universities. In order to provide broad assistance to these institutions, the Ministry has branches throughout the national territory, whose communications are done through a system based on PBX for voice communication only.
However, the PBX equipment acquired under a free lease agreement was already outdated, and the equipment provider had the power to determine the prices of the services rendered, which resulted in a financial burden for the entire operation. There was no technical assistance for the equipment and maintenance was not included in the service.
To remedy the problem, a new design was needed in order to become independent of the equipment provider, reduce costs and, especially, update the technology used. The prerequisites were the use of an open source platform in accordance with the ONTI (National Office of Information Technology) standards, using the structure already existent in the Ministry. The migration would have to have minimal impact on users; the new telephony system should have redundancy and a fault-contingency system and, additionally, offer new, integrated functions.
The solution found was a turnkey implementation of Wirephone, a unified communications software developed by Lateco, along with the application of Khomp’s EBS. The Wirephone was installed in the five headquarters of the Ministry of Education, based on Khomp’s EBS line equipment, providing more than 2000 FXS ports, 7 E1 links and FXO and GSM interfaces. The remaining locations were integrated into the existing network with the SIP protocol.
With EBS working off of a server, the main advantage of the new project was the easy expansion of scenarios and the modularity of the interfaces. Other advantages that contributed to the success of the new project were:
- Cost of equipment maintenance included;
- Updated equipment with the latest versions always available;
- Freedom to choose the most cost-effective telecommunications company;
- Mobile communication via GSM network;
- Continued use of previous infrastructure;
- Reduction in the total costs of the operation;
- Implementation of new features: CTI, fax server and VoIP.
Finally, the implementation of Wirephone fully integrated with Khomp’s equipment has resulted in a more advanced, secure and effective telephony system, meeting all the current communication needs of the Ministry of Education of Argentina.
Eng. Juan Carlos Atrio presenting the case at Futurecom
About Lateco
Lateco is an integrator of telecommunications solutions in Argentina, with more than 15 years of experience in public and private organizations. Its products and services are used by customers such as IBM, Motorola Mobile, Santana Textiles, Totvs, Air France, Dow Agrociences and General Electric, among others. Lateco (www.lateco.com.ar) installs, integrates and supports the Wirephone (www.wirephone.net).