Aspect Successfully Deploys Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 at Corporate Headquarters

CHELMSFORD, Mass. – Aspect, a unified communications (UC) solutions provider, today announced the successful rollout of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 at the company headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass. Aspect® Professional Services worked closely with the company’s IT organization to  complete the deployment on 18 February 2009 and the company is continuing its global deployment throughout offices in the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific (APAC) regions over the coming months. The implementation was accelerated through UC RapidStart, a packaged UC Services offering from Aspect that helps companies gain hands on experience with a pilot deployment of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS).
 
The company’s headquarters, with more than 300 employees, is the first Aspect site to have completely migrated to Office Communications Server 2007 R2 for all voice and voicemail services, audio and Web conferencing, instant messaging (IM) and presence, making the Chelmsford office the company’s first phone-free location. Aspect has also retired its Chelmsford PBX for all employee peer-to-peer and corporate calling services.
 
“This journey to ‘go-live’ is really a significant milestone in Aspect’s company-wide unified communications strategy,” said Jamie Ryan, senior vice president, Information Technology and chief information officer, Aspect. “This effort was successful because of the joint efforts of Aspect Professional Services and IT throughout the deployment. Aspect Professional Services can now bring the same skills and experience to our customers around the globe to help customers develop a UC strategy and deploy it effectively.
 
“The best part is the cost benefits we’ll be able to see as a result of the implementation, including saving $75,000 per month on conference calling in the first year alone,” Ryan added. “Furthermore, both local and long distance costs will drop significantly as a result of our use of session initiation protocol (SIP) Trunking and will result in additional savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars as we complete our deployment. With these types of savings, our ROI will be extremely aggressive.”
 
Aspect continues its global rollout of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to more than 1,800 employees.  The company’s deployment across North America and Europe will be completed by June, with APAC following in the second half of 2009.
 
“Through this implementation, Aspect has applied our understanding of global mission critical voice deployments, in addition to our expertise as one of the first Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Voice specialization partners,” said Kevin Schwartz, executive vice president of Global Professional Services, Aspect. “To the company’s knowledge, the Aspect implementation will be one of the largest Microsoft Office Communications 2007 R2 rollouts globally, and this implementation further validates our expertise as an enterprise-class UC services provider.”
 
About UC RapidStart
UC RapidStart from Aspect helps organizations jumpstart their UC journey with a pilot deployment of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS) and Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 to a small number of users, combined with introductory workshops on business and IT strategy to help organizations move forward into subsequent detailed planning, architecture, and design activities.
 
About Aspect
Aspect provides software and consulting services that turn the potential of Microsoft unified communications into real business results across the enterprise and in the contact center.  Applying 35 years of insight and experience, Aspect helps more than two-thirds of the FORTUNE Global 100, as well as small and medium enterprises, power their business processes with communications. For more information, visit www.aspect.com.