Retailer Boosts Wireless VoIP Connectivity, Reduces Expenses with 3Com® Unified Switch and Access Points
Snapshot
Communicating across seven sites in the UK and one in New Zealand was expensive for Barrons, one of the largest outdoor retailers in the UK. Tim Ormrod, IT Director at Barrons, explains. “Barrons is a family company that has sold caravans and motorhomes for over 50 years. We employ about 350 people across sales sites in Durham, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, north Wales and Kent,” he says, “and we even have a branch office in New Zealand. Communication between all these locations was becoming unmanageable and costly, and I needed to find a solution that would allow us to cut costs and control everything from one location.” To effectively address these challenges, Barrons chose the 3Com® Unified Gigabit Wireless PoE Switch 24 system and 3Com Wireless 8760 Dual-Radio 11/a/b/g PoE Access Point to economically extend converged communications from a single point on the network to wireless users accessing the company’s LAN from any remote location. Barron’s expenses from internal and external calling and telephonymaintenance charges have been reduced, and it is benefitting from secure, managed wireless communications with centralized control.
Challenges
Barrons needed data and voice connectivity throughout the company. The main requisite was to link all the company’s sites into one Voice over IP (VoIP)-based phone system to reduce internal and external call charges and eliminate maintenance fees. Tim knew the efficiencies and additional savings that would result from including the company’s wireless users within this cost-effective communications network since he had been an early adopter of wireless technology.
Why 3Com
Tim Ormrod,
IT Director, Barrons
Tim evaluated several systems from Cisco, Aruba, Meru and Extracom before discovering the 3Com Unified Gigabit Wireless PoE Switch 24 and the 3Com Wireless Dual-Radio 8760 11 a/b/g Access Point, which performed better than all of the competing solutions. “The 3Com Unified Switch enabled seamless roaming with no dropping between access points,” he says. “The Meru system, for example, either dropped calls or took over two seconds to pass a call from one access point to another.”
To cost-effectively power its access points, IP phones and security cameras, Barrons deployed the secure 3Com wireless solution with its centralized access control. Now, not only are all of Barrons’ sites across the UK connected via VPNs, but also the main seven-acre site at Coppull, near Chorley, Lancashire, has state-of-the-art wireless connectivity via 20 Wireless Dual-Radio 8760 11 a/b/g Access Points (APs). Because staff needed to conduct business as they walked round the site with their Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based phones, Barrons required the broad coverage range and seamless roaming provided by the 3Com 8760 APs.
Additionally, a single Unified Switch located anywhere on the Barrons network was also able to support the wireless needs of the entire campus—without the need and cost of adding specialized wireless switches or controllers to its network—as a further cost-saving and productivity-enhancing value. It uniquely offers smallto-medium-sized businesses with 20 to 250 users an economical one-box solution for integrating their wired, wireless, PoE and convergence applications. The switch not only combines the features of a traditional Layer 2 Gigabit LAN switch with a centralized wireless controller that can manage 24 APs from a single switch box, but it also delivers full power from each of its 24 Power over Ethernet (PoE)-enabled ports for economical, flexible deployment and use.
Key Benefits
Tim Ormrod enumerates the benefits that using the 3Com Unified Switch has brought to the business. “It’s easy to work out the sums,” he says. “A Unified Switch cost me about £900 plus £140 per access point, compared with £2,500 for a competitive product with less performance and £220 per access point. Not only does it save costs on internal telecommunications, but we can also make international calls to New Zealand at no cost through the switch. And all internal calls between our Nokias and desktop IP phones are free. Overall, we are looking at a 20-30% drop in costs.”
Running the Numbers: Cost-Saving Value
| 3Com Unified Wireless Switch Solution | Competitive Offering | Savings from a 3Com Purchase | ||
| 1x Unified Wireless Switch | £900 | 1x Wireless Switch | £2,500 | £3,200 |
| 20x 8760 Access Points (£140/ea) | £2,800 | 20x Access Points (£220/ea) | £4,400 | |
| Total: | £3,700 | Total: | £6,900 | |
Axis IP cameras have also been added to the system to increase security at the entrance barriers and in the workshops. “They simply fitted to the network in one easy setup,” says Ormrod. “No extra wiring was needed and all the traffic in and out of the sites is now recorded on one PC.”
“I am gob smacked by the capabilities of the 3Com Unified Switch… It is truly exceptional compared to the competition.” says Tim Ormrod.
Goal
Provide wireless Voice over IP (VoIP) across company
Increase manageability of wired, wireless and converged services
Reduce communications and system management costs
Solution
3Com® Unified Gigabit Wireless PoE Switch 24
3Com Wireless 8760 Dual-Radio 11/a/b/g PoE Access Point
Third-party IP phones and PABX system
Axis IP security cameras
Result
Integrated communications network with seamless wireless mobility across company’s business campus
50% savings on purchase of 3Com wireless solution when compared with offerings from other vendors, plus additional benefits of 24 ports of Gigabit Ethernet, 24 ports of PoE and support for up to 24 APs
20-30% drop in communications and system management costs
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