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AT Communications SiNET Case Study

The Challenge

SiNET is ATC Group PLCs’ fully managed, hosted IP telephony system which revolutionises business communications. It is a one supplier, one product, one bill, complete communications solution for single and multi-site businesses. SiNET is a simple package that provides all the features and benefits of a state of the art telephone system. SiNET is targeted at SME customers with a requirement of 5-50 extensions per site and especially multi-sited businesses and large enterprises with multiple small sites in their estate.

Sites are connected to the ‘SiNET system’ via a broadband connection, providing a single network for voice and data. A key attribute of the solution is simplicity, to achieve connection a user simply needs to plug the SiNET handset into the delivered network. In order to deliver this low touch, high value service the Group selected Virtual Access as a technology partner.

The solution needed to address the following key requirements of the SiNET service:

• Ease of installation and in-service maintenance
• High quality voice services on a shared voice and data network
• A hands-off approach to router service provisioning and configuration management

The Solution

Working closely with the Group’s operations team, the Virtual Access customer engineering team helped to integrate the Service Managed Gateway CPE appliance technology with the SiNET IP Centrex infrastructure. The goal being to provide a seamless, scaleable, cost-effective solution.

Virtual Access worked with the Group in the design of the final configurations for the customer premises equipment routers located at the edges of the network. This required the use of “Clearway” technology developed by Virtual Access to address the challenges of mixed voice and data networks, ensuring minimised jitter and therefore highest possible voice quality.

From ATC Group’s point of view, the overheads associated with on site installation visits for setup and configuration of the routers, could have a serious impact on the profitability of the solution. The use of the Virtual Access Zero-Touch managed installation process means that no specialist installer is required on site to install the CPE appliance. This in turn simplifies the logistics operation and reduces the costs of service implementation.

The Benefits

Why ATC felt the Virtual Access solution was a good fit for this project

• ATC Group chose to use the Virtual Access IP-Touch service delivery model, a service that provides full outsource of the configuration management and second- and third-line support of the CPE devices.
• ATC Group’s operations have access to a management portal which enables them to place service requests, to perform first-line support tasks and to monitor the status of installed appliances. 24hours per day, 7 days per week. 
• This service model allows the operations team to focus their efforts on the delivery of telephony and SiNET services to their customers.
• Virtual Access’ management systems are hosted at a secure, hosting location for Internet-based services. Management servers are also located within the core of MPLS/L2TP private networks of a selection of ISPs.
• These options provide ATC Group with a broad range of service environments for SiNET.
• Each Virtual Access Service Managed Gateway appliance locally monitors a broad range of service attributes such as diagnostic status, data throughput, voice call quality and WAN utilisation using a number of statistical methods.
• Information is processed and stored locally by the appliance, this removes the need for costly conventional monitoring systems. Services are monitored centrally through the Virtual Access secure Monitor portal.
• Because the information is locally pre-processed and stored in battery backed up memory, information needs only to be transported across the network for periodic central archival. This eliminates network traffic overheads involved in service management, resulting in bandwidth savings, increased scalability and depth of SLA monitoring.
• A further business benefit of the Virtual Access proposition for ATC Group is that of the solution’s inherent capability to provide network monitoring services. The Monitor Portal, coupled with localised information captured by each CPE appliance, offer a ready-made platform for delivery of proactive availability monitoring and network utilisation reporting.

Further business benefits to the ATC Group
Mark Sensier, Product and Services Director commented, “In deploying the SiNET solution to our target markets it was vitally important that we had a partner which we could rely upon to deliver a first class service. In addition, we wanted our customers’ experience of VoIP to be unblemished and therefore required a device that could address the quality of service requirements. Further, Virtual Access has delivered on all fronts and have contributed to the success of the SiNET product suite.”