Vertical Helps Innovation Center Attain State-of-the-Art Communications

Innovation Center, Owned & Operated by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC)

Background

Part of an over-reaching effort to revitalize the economy of the Western New York State region through the conversion of a once-thriving manufacturing center into a magnet for emerging companies in disciplines such as the sciences and technology, the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) is a consortium of more than nine major biomedical research, education, clinical practice and entrepreneurial institutions and over 50 private sector companies.

Undergoing what BNMC, Inc. Chief Operating Officer Pat Whalen calls “a knowledge-based transformation,” the 120-acre campus has been re-imagined as a high-tech health and life sciences hub to attract world-class organizations and talent. Vertical’s Wave IP is used to support the development of the BNMC’s Innovation Center, a research and development facility for growing life sciences and biotech companies.

“Within the Innovation Center, we have implemented a state-of-the-art, feature-rich communications infrastructure, one which would support advanced communications services, such as unified communications, collaboration and even mobility,” stated Whalen. “As the building continues to attract new tenants, any new communications infrastructure would need to deliver substantial flexibility and scalability in order to serve our needs.”

Solution

After sending bid packages to a number of leading IT providers, the BNMC, Inc. selected the PCA Group of Buffalo, New York, to help meet the organization’s communications needs. Along with IT services, PCA provides a variety of telecommunications services, including VoIP business systems, custom applications and other related amenities. For BNMC’s telephony needs, Whalen and PCA agreed that the best fit to advance its goals was the Wave IP business communications system from Vertical Communications.

“The BNMC, Inc. had a lot on its plate, both in managing its roster of companies in a complex industry, and in transforming the pre-existing infrastructure and repurposing it to meet a new paradigm,” said PCA Group’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Zannin. “They needed a system that is powerful enough to support a challenging, high-concept, multi-tenant venture that also carried the extra burden of uplifting the commercial profile of the region. With the outstanding range of features and capabilities of Vertical’s Wave platform, we would recommend nothing else.”

Results

Vertical’s Wave IP system was installed throughout the building. The architecture is flexible enough to easily incorporate incoming tenants. Services have even been securely extended to ancillary personnel due to the ability to aggregate calls through the Wave system via remote station log-in, for full call accounting, visibility, analysis, and accountability. In addition to relying on the Wave IP platform, the tenants utilize Vertical’s ViewPoint unified communications solution, an intuitive interface that allows management to view and oversee communications activity across the entire network from a single dashboard.

The PCA Group provides ongoing technical management of the Wave IP system via remote monitoring, remote backup and automatic patch management and can monitor service tickets, facilitate back-up and address technical issues before the Innovation Center tenants even knows they have arisen. Such managed services are key to maintaining business continuity for the entire membership in an industry where streamlined, effective and always-on communications can have critical implications.

The Wave IP system also provides emergency “hotline” capabilities to the building management team, generating a number of instantaneous notifications through voice mail, e-mail, text alerts and automated system call-outs — all integrated with PCA’s service ticket process. “This tool has been a remarkable asset for our organization,” says Whalen. “We can provision services, change configurations, or have a technical matter addressed within minutes.”

“We’re committed to developing state-of-the art communications technologies for organizations such as the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus,” said Rick Dell, chief operating officer of Vertical Communications. “The group is a perfect illustration of how deep-featured unified communications features embedded within Wave IP can satisfy the varied demands of sophisticated customers. We’re proud of our ability to serve the life sciences and biotech community, as well as play a role in the economic rejuvenation of the greater Western New York area.”