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Smoothstone, a provider of cloud-based enterprise unified communications applications, partners with Logista, a provider of technology management services, announced a strategic engagement offering unified IP communications with a business advisory firm, HORNE, LLP.

HORNE found its IT resources exhausted from juggling complex infrastructure and communications issues.

"We wanted a more reliable communications solution, but needed someone else to manage it," says Dave Bufkin director of IT for HORNE, LLP. "After discovering that our 3-year-old call management network required a significant system upgrade, we were not prepared for the expense and complexity associated with the effort."

"The key challenge was to identify a solution that would enable HORNE to maintain as much of their current Cisco (News - Alert) investment as possible," added Cary Bush, Logista's sales director of voice services.

"The purpose in the hosted and managed service design was to provide an additional level of real-time support to the IT staff, as well as to provide a better business continuity application, since many of their sites lie in hurricane-threatened areas. Smoothstone (News - Alert) was best suited to meet all the needs of our client," Bush adds.

Both firms, with HORNE designed a managed, Cisco-based network infrastructure that delivered greater control to HORNE while mitigating the IT resources required supporting the infrastructure. Then HORNE benefited from working over IP, such as fully managed VoIP to the desktop, intelligent call routing, a hosted contact center and advanced, unified threat management.

The solution was integrated across HORNE's MPLS network infrastructure, and backed by Smoothstone's 24/7 Network Operations Center (NOC (News - Alert)). The team's Cisco-certified engineers now act as an extension to HORNE's existing IT staff.

"We previously felt that we had purchased a 747 full of passengers sitting on the runway with no pilot to fly. Now, not only do we have a dependable, easy-to-manage communications network, but access to a number of tools and applications that we did not have before." Bufkin continued.

"When Logista presented the HORNE situation to us, we knew instantly that we could help," explains James Whitemore, Smoothstone's Chief Marketing Officer. "Working with Logista, we were able to deliver a suite of cloud-based unified IP communications, alleviating many of HORNE's current infrastructure burdens and allowing them to scale their network in the future. In partnership with Logista, our common belief in offering fully scalable cloud-based applications continues to help businesses thrive in their respective marketplaces."