Bow Valley College Gains Network Efficiency and Improved Student Services with Converged Network Based on Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise and Omni Switches.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

CALABASAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 8, 2003

Converged Network Yields Substantial Cost Savings and

Productivity Gains

Alcatel (NYSE: ALA) today announced that Bow Valley College has successfully implemented a converged voice and data network using Alcatel's OmniPCX Enterprise IP-PBX and Alcatel's Omni data switches at the core and edge of the network. This IP-based converged network has provided Bow Valley College with substantial cost savings as well as a full range of services, including contact center, visual messenger, and call accounting capabilities.

Bow Valley College is a fast-growing educational institution serving more than 10,000 students annually in Calgary and at campuses throughout southern Alberta. To accommodate the strong growth, Bow Valley College needed to build up its infrastructure for better delivery of voice and data services. From a cost savings and manageability perspective, replacing Centrex with an IP telephony solution that maximizes its Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth was the logical choice.

Previously, Bow Valley had to rely on its Centrex provider for adding, changing, or moving users on the network. That process can take up to three weeks and costs hundreds of dollars per move. With the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise, a handset can be moved within minutes with less paperwork, saving valuable time and money. Mike Shannon, manager IT services, Bow Valley College, said, "The overall cost of the new network has resulted in substantial yearly savings and allowed us to better manage the network and provide improved customer service. Our net savings will be close to 80% over the previous year."

Bow Valley College has also implemented the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise with the OmniTouch Contact Center in its call center. Through the system's integrated automated attendant, the College is able to greet its callers immediately and automatically, routing the call to the right destination based on the callers' choices (for example, career advisor, program information, and staff directory). The automated attendant includes interactive queuing capability that enables callers to leave the queue without losing their priority. Presently, 13 career advisors staff the call center, spending half the time on the phones and the other half working one-on-one with students.

Apart from the 327 Alcatel IP phones deployed, Bow Valley College is using Alcatel's Visual Messenger, a voice messaging solution integrated with the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise that allows users to manage e-mails, voicemails and faxes from a centralized in-box. This feature is especially helpful for Bow Valley's career advisors since they handle a significant call volume. Career advisors can now view incoming calls on their PCs with the option of responding to missed calls via phone or email and to forward fax, voice messages as an email attachment to another career advisor, if necessary.

Network administrators at Bow Valley College utilize Alcatel's OmniVista network management tool to manage the converged voice and data network. The OmniVista is used for setting up quality of service parameters on the Omni switch so voice can be delivered ahead of less time-sensitive traffic to ensure voice quality. Furthermore, all voice-over-IP devices are grouped within one virtual LAN separate from other applications for better bandwidth utilization and added security.

For its advanced call accounting needs, Bow Valley College was able to easily integrate a call detail recording software from ISI with the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise. ISI's Infortel for Windows is used to track phone usage for staffing purposes. Each user is identified with a code so that each call can be charged back to the appropriate department/cost center. ISI also helps the college IT department to detect toll fraud by providing trunk-to-trunk calls alarms.

"Alcatel believes in strengthening its broad enterprise IP Communications portfolio with strategic alliances so customers like Bow Valley College can rely on us for their end-to-end convergence needs," said Tom Wilburn, general manager, North America enterprise business. "The Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise and Omni family of convergence-optimized data switches together provide Bow Valley College with a reliable, flexible IP telephony solution that meets their educational requirements today and tomorrow."

About Bow Valley College

Bow Valley College is a fast, focused and flexible educational institution serving more than 10,000 learners annually in Calgary and at campuses throughout southern Alberta. Bow Valley College offers credit programs accommodating learners on a full- and part-time basis. Key programs include high-impact job training in health, business, industry and computers, English as a Second Language and academic upgrading. For more information, visit www.bowvalleycollege.ca.

About Alcatel enterprise networking solutions

Alcatel delivers standards-based IP communications solutions to a global customer base of over 500,000 small, medium and large enterprises, government agencies, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions. Alcatel's award-winning Omni family of IP Communications solutions consists of an extensive portfolio of network switching infrastructure products and IP telephony products built to provide long-term value.

About Alcatel

Alcatel provides end-to-end communications solutions, enabling carriers, service providers and enterprises to deliver content to any type of user, anywhere in the world. Leveraging its long-term leadership in telecommunications network equipment as well as its expertise in applications and network services, Alcatel enables its customers to focus on optimizing their service offerings and revenue streams. With sales of $15.5 billion in 2002, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com.