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Vassar College Selects Esna's Cloudlink Unified Communications
[January 23, 2013]

Vassar College Selects Esna's Cloudlink Unified Communications


Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, Jan 23, 2013 (PRWeb.com via COMTEX) -- Esna Technologies (Esna), a leader in cloud-enabled unified communication and collaboration solutions, announced today that Vassar College, a premier liberal arts college, has selected Esna to provide Vassar employees with unified communications solutions that seamlessly integrate the college's Cisco phone system with Google(TM) Apps.



After the campus migrated its in-house mail and calendaring platform to Google Apps for Education, Vassar decided, as part of an ongoing project to replace the campus' NEC PBX system, to request proposals for a VoIP solution that would improve communications and increase collaboration for its 1200 employees.

The college's request for proposal for a voice and unified communications solution identified as an essential requirement that any vendor interested in Vassar's business would need to integrate all aspects of Google Apps, Gmail, Talk and Calendar seamlessly with the college's new VoIP platform. This integration would enable robust unified communications and live collaboration inside Gmail, transforming it into the interface to Vassar's call control, messaging and collaboration tools.


When reviewing the submitted proposals, the Vassar team saw that, in most cases, including the Cisco proposal, Esna was the supplier identified by the competing voice vendors that would connect their proposed VoIP system to Google Apps.

At the conclusion of the RFP process, Vassar selected Cisco's unified communications platform, Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity Connection, along with Esna for their solution. The Cisco deployment is scheduled for March of this year.

Vassar's Director of Networks & Systems, Emily Harris said: "As we carefully reviewed all of the RFP proposals, it became clear that Esna was the industry standard for full unified communications integration with Google Apps for Education. Because Esna was able to integrate with all the voice vendors who participated in our RFP process, selecting them was the easiest part of the decision." "We view a standards-based approach to integrating Cisco Collaboration solutions with cloud and premise-based productivity applications as a key way to increase connectedness within University communities. Amazing things happen when you help connect people through these productivity-enhancing tools," said Larry Payne, Cisco's area vice president for State, Local Government, and Education.

Davide Petramala, Esna's executive vice president of sales and business development, adds: "Unified communications is changing how educational institutions communicate and collaborate today. By linking Google Apps for Education to Vassar's new telephony system using Esna's Cloudlink software, we are able to assist Vassar in achieving its goal of reducing IT costs while at the same time increasing on-campus collaboration." Higher education institutions across the globe are embracing cloud-based applications and collaboration tools like Google Apps, which has more than 20 million users, to connect faculty and students. Improving on campus collaboration positively impacts processes at colleges and universities while at the same time uses budget dollars more effectively. Cloud-enabled unified communication (UC) capabilities--including single inbox access to voice and email messages, presence, and fixed-to-mobile convergence--delivers anytime, anyplace access to information that boosts productivity.

About Esna Esna is a global leader in cloud-enabled unified communication and collaboration solutions. Esna integrates cloud, mobile and social communications on any device and with business applications from Google, VMware, Microsoft and Salesforce.com. Esna gives millions of information workers the freedom to choose how, when and where they communicate and collaborate with one another. Thousands of organizations across the globe have increased productivity, improved collaboration and reduced communication costs with Esna. For more information, visit http://www.esna.com.

About Vassar Founded in 1861, Vassar College is a highly selective, residential, coeducational liberal arts college. Consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country, Vassar is renowned for pioneering achievements in education, for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the beauty of its campus.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10351520.htm PRWeb.com

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