Solution Connects Staff, Students Securely from Any Desktop in the World
NEC Unified Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of VoIP and data communications, today announced Rio Salado College in Tempe, Ariz., is connecting students around the world with faculty and staff using NEC UNIVERGE® communications infrastructure and two Web phone applications custom-built by NEC’s Advanced Application Solutions Group (AASG).
Rio Salado is one of 10 Maricopa Community Colleges, serving over 61,000 students annually of which 26,000 are online. In addition, many of Rio Salado’s 1,000 adjunct faculty members work remotely, with more than 20 percent living out-of-state. All of this poses significant communications challenges.
“Rio Salado prides itself on being accessible to everyone, and our communications infrastructure must be absolutely reliable yet flexible,” said Tom Sanfilippo, coordinator of telecommunications for Rio Salado College. “Because Maricopa Community Colleges has been an NEC customer of more than 20 years, we are confident in the company’s ability to deliver a solution that meets Rio Salado’s evolving needs.”
Using the virtual campus’ NEC UNIVERGE NEAX 2400 IPX communications platform as a basis, NEC’s professional services group was able to add a custom Web phone application, based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standard, which allows faculty to log in securely and call one another from their desktops as if they were on campus. Users also can dial out as with any desktop phone.
A separate SIP-based Web phone application allows any Rio Salado student with Internet access to log in and make calls directly to the college, whether they are paying tuition or requesting coursework from a professor. A significant portion of the student body is comprised of U.S. military members, and this application means soldiers serving overseas have a cost-effective and reliable means of communicating directly with stateside faculty and administration.
“The work NEC’s Advanced Application Solutions Group has done at Rio Salado College is a stellar example of our ability to help customers evolve with their customers’ needs,” said Paul Lopez, general manager, marketing and services, for NEC Unified Solutions. “Leveraging the power of the Web and IP communications, Rio Salado is among the most innovative colleges in the country.”
For more information about Rio Salado College, visit www.riosalado.edu.
For more information about NEC Unified Solutions, visit www.necunified.com.
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