UK retail financial services operation Capital One has contracted with Cisco Systems for what is believed to be the largest IP-based telephony installation in the UK.
US-based Capital One plans to double its UK workforce to more than 2500 by the year 2002. The new consolidated IP platform has been specified to reduce the management overheads of running separate voice and data infrastructures by providing a single platform for voice and data exchanges to an initial 600 users. New recruits will be plugged in to the system as they arrive.
Scot Gardner, voice technologies manager of Cisco Systems, UK, says: "The open standards and Avvid architecture of this network means that as the company grows it will simply 'plug in' new office locations and immediately have full functionality."
Peter Knight, director of IT at Capital One says the installation is the first stepping stone towards an enterprise-wide IP communications platform "which will support all applications and media streams as a core foundation for e-business".