NetIQ signs up CSC and RMIT for VoIP management solution

Wednesday, 05 August 2009 06:02

RMIT will use NetIQ AppManager to support 7,500 phones across all of its campuses, while leading ICT solutions company, CSC will use NetIQ AppManager to strengthen the networks of its VoIP customers.

According to NetIQ’s Regional Director, Asia Pacific, Boris Ivancic, businesses in Australia and New Zealand have become significant users of VoIP technology during 2009.

“We’ve noticed that the market for VoIP solutions is bigger throughout the Asia Pacific region than the US and Europe, where security and IT Process Automation continue to be our most sought after offerings. Our local implementations are also significant in scale - organisations such as RMIT are installing huge IP Telephony networks and they understand the only way to experience real benefits from this technology is to have a strong management system in place. We’ve also signed on a major financial services company that is implementing the solution to manage an IP Telephony network of 8,500 phones in Australia.”

NetIQ AppManager is used to support more than one million VoIP enabled phones worldwide, spanning the four leading infrastructure vendors; Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and Nortel. It provides a comprehensive solution for managing, securing, diagnosing and analysing the performance and availability of VoIP, to ensure Quality of Service (QoS) for end users.

Local NetIQ customer and IT Solutions company, Gen-i believes the VoIP market has matured enough that organisations are more comfortable to introduce the technology. Ron Murray, ICT Outsourcing Business Manager at Gen-i elaborates, “We’re being approached by large enterprises in particular to implement or manage their converged voice and data networks. For example, we use NetIQ AppManager to support a large bank with over 300 branches in the ANZ region, which has 7,500 phones, a VoIP solution, and video and audio conferencing capabilities. Working with such large customers, it’s critical to have a functional solution like NetIQ to pinpoint exactly which branches or offices are experiencing issues and gain insight into potential problems.”

Responding to this growth in VoIP adoption, NetIQ has recently appointed VoIP specialist and former Nortel engineer Allen Young as a senior consultant. Regional Director, Boris Ivancic continued, “Young is a real asset to our local team, and his vast knowledge of the VoIP space will help our customers get the most out of their IP Telephony deployments.

“Despite the growing interest in VoIP, we still find that many enterprises aren’t familiar with how to prepare and manage their network to support the technology. Without proper analysis and visibility into your network you’ll never be able to give end users the level of voice service that they’re traditionally used to. However, the success we’ve recently had with companies like CSC and RMIT suggests that awareness of these issues is beginning to spread.”

A recent survey by NetIQ on trends in converged voice and data found that only six percent of the 400 global respondents intended to monitor and measure usage trends, leaving administrators unable to collect productivity metrics and optimise quality of experience (QoE).