Norbert Dentressangle (ND logistics) was facing a mounting problem with its operations in Italy. Communications among their offices were getting expensive. When the company routed calls going among the main and branch offices via Telecom Italia (News - Alert), it led to PSTN charges. The system in place was also cumbersome. The company faced voice and data infrastructure that became increasingly burdensome for the IT staff.

But the volume of business was increasing – that obviously being a good thing. And the process to start communications for new branch offices was way too time-consuming and expensive.

Facing this dilemma, Alessio Miranda, project manager at TechLAN Reti Srl – which is the system integrator for ND logistics – came up with an answer.

By using a private MPLS/IP network interoffice calls would avoid the PSTN and avoid all of those costly tolls. In addition, VoIP gateways would be installed at each office, so corporate calls could be routed over the private network. TechLAN’s CLIP 5500 iPBX would be put in place to get rid of the older equipment, too.

The company had one last issue – who to select as its VoIP gateway manufacturer. Miranda opted for Patton Electronics based on recommendations found in online technical forums. They picked SmartNode VoIP products from Patton (News - Alert).

They remain very pleased with the choice. “We strongly recommend choosing Patton VoIP gateways for each project,” Miranda said in a recent statement. CEO Stefano Campi agrees, adding that “Patton equipment delivers absolute reliability in all our converged-IP projects. We install SmartNode VoIP solutions with utmost confidence that voice services will be securely managed and optimized.”

In their case, SmartNode met their needs by “scaling from 2 to 120 VoIP calls and offering models that provide just about every standard telephony interface,” according to the company statement. In addition, SmartNode provided them IP-routing and call-numbering plans, with analogdigital conversion capabilities, the company adds. And when TechLAN wanted to avoid coarse clocking on a VoIP gateway, Miranda asked for Patton’s high-precision clock when available.

Since that time, ND logistics has operated two centralized and eight branch offices – offering converged voice and data operations. More remote offices will be added.

By using Patton, the growing company has peace of mind and the right technology in place.