For Ministry of Sound, IP telephony is massive

Lifestyle brand Ministry of Sound has signed a contract with NEC Philips Unified Solutions to implement an IP telephony system throughout its headquarters in London.

The system will also connect employees based in Toronto and travelling around the world, giving savings on international calls. The company fields between 5,000 and 10,000 calls per month across 100 employees, to co-ordinate more than 500 events per year.

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According to Ministry of Sound head of operations, James Bacchus, the switch to IP routing of calls was made because it allowed the company to integrate calls with data at the desktop as well as making savings on call cost.

He said in a statement: "The main business driver was to replace our existing system which had a limited number of seats, to something that could scale better. We also wanted a solution that would give us presence information on all employees."

The system is based around an NEC 2000 IPS voice server which will be integrated with Microsoft Outlook, once the company upgrades to Exchange 2007, to allow users to process voicemail alongside email and scheduling.

The integration should also enable calls to be routed more effectively because the system is able to detect which employees are online at any one time.

Ministry of Sound telecoms and networks manager, Mark Preest, said in a statement: "In terms of functionality, simplicity is key. The interface is uncomplicated, therefore little management is required."