Barnsley College expects to improve connectivity of its staff at its two main campuses in the UK with the implementation of Microsoft’s Office Communications Server. NEC Philips Unified Solutions, a specialist in unified communications, will implement the required infrastructure at the college for easier re-location of staff between campuses.
In addition, the college will deploy Microsoft Unified Messaging (UM) and Live Meeting, as well as NEC Philips’ IP telephony to improve staff communication throughout the organisation.
Chris Barron, ICLT infrastructure manager at Barnsley College, said: “Improved staff connectivity and enhanced presence information will have a very positive impact on productivity and efficiency. Given that we have more than 400 members of staff across our campuses, the ability to find out at a glance which member of staff is available is invaluable.”
Microsoft Office Live Meeting will enable the college staff to attend virtual meetings. They can make presentations, share files and desktops remotely during the meetings. When the meeting is over, Office Live Meeting archives a complete recording of the session.
The college plans to extend the unified communications service to students, so that they can securely access the college network from any remote location, identify the status of their lecturers and attend lectures virtually.
NEC Philips provides enterprise networking and communications systems to organisations. Its IP-based systems unify products, applications and services.
In October this year, Japan’s NEC Personal Products has implemented an integrated Unified Communications system with Microsoft and NEC, for approximately 3,000 employees. This is touted to be one of the largest UC deployments in Japan, linking NEC’s IP telephony communications server with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.