Chicago Bears Franchise Chooses Mitel for Unified Communications and Collaboration

While communications and collaboration are critical for every football team, doing it in a huddle doesn’t always cut it. Unified communications and collaboration (UCC) software solutions provider Mitel (News - Alert) has announced that NFL franchise the Chicago Bears has chosen Mitel’s Freedom architecture to enable collaboration and communications across the entire organization. The solution is expected to provide seamless unified communications between multiple offices and staff members working remotely or traveling between locations.

“A key differentiator setting Mitel apart from everybody else is the flexibility of the Freedom architecture,” said Jason Saidoo, senior director of information technology for the Chicago Bears. “It works with our current infrastructure, allows mobile staff members to stay connected while working between multiple offices and while on the road, provides a singular business continuity strategy, and enables us to build a strong platform with the capability to scale to the needs of our organization.”

Freedom has been deployed throughout the organization, from the front office to the ticket center to the training facility to the crew down at Soldier Field in Chicago. All in all, the Mitel solution currently serves almost 150 users across the Bears’ organization. The full deployment consists of:

·         Mitel Communications Director extending Dynamic Extension and hotdesking capabilities to all users to ensure calls are never missed, regardless of the user’s location;

·         Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Advanced, which provides users with a corporate directory that includes rich presence information, instant messaging and visual voice mail, all within a single collaboration portal with key features also accessible on any mobile device;

·         Mitel Contact Center Solutions, which provides ticket agents with visual queues to see how long people have been waiting, enabling agents to better respond to fans more quickly and more efficiently, especially during times of high volume; and

·         An ethernet networking solution from Extreme Networks (News - Alert) that integrates with the Mitel products to provide a solution that meets the requirements of the strategic data center evolution while controlling costs.

The solution also provides the Chicago Bears with the foundation to bring all voice applications into their planned VMware virtualized data center. This can translate to simplified management of all applications and the ability to design a strong, integrated business continuity strategy, said the company.“The Chicago Bears organization is a perfect example of how customers leverage the benefits of Mitel’s Freedom architecture,” said Stephen Beamish (News - Alert), Mitel’s VP of corporate marketing and strategic alliances. “By deploying our solution, they have been able to leverage their existing infrastructure and extend the in-office experience anywhere to connect the entire organization. It also allows them to grow as the business needs evolve.”

Saidoo will present the Chicago Bears solution during the Mitel Business Partner Conference General Session taking place today (Thursday) at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, Florida.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.