Moving into a new office can offer plenty of challenges. There always is the option of bringing your old equipment with you, but for American Founders Life Insurance Co. (AFLI), an antiquated phone system wouldnt help move the business forward, particularly in such an important area as customer service.

Glen Pederson, director of networks for AFLI, says the carrier had to make a difficult decision on whether to go with a voice over IP (VoIP) system, a PBX system, or a mix. The companys hub network was limited, and there were issues of bandwidth with the imaging system. With that in mind, we looked at this as a great opportunity to upgrade our infrastructure completely and be ready for the future of voice over IP and integrated applications into the call center, says Pederson.

The carrier looked at three options, one of them Alcatel, which offered the mix that AFLI liked. In the Alcatel solution, all the pieces actually work within the phone system itself, as well as in the voice mail, says Pederson. They werent extra pieces.