The NET VX Series' exceptional compatibility and interoperability enabledBrepols to effectively implement Microsoft's solution in its existingnetwork-and-telecom environment so that it could rapidly gain the businessbenefits of convergence without losing the use of its existing faxmachines, compromising access to local emergency services, or otherwisedisrupting its ongoing business.

Brepols has two main offices plus a warehouse in Belgium, as well as anoffice in New York. Nearly half of the company's employees are teleworkersutilizing a laptop and VPN connection. By moving to VoIP and unifiedcommunications, Brepols sought to significantly improve staff productivityand accelerate a wide range of important day-to-day business processes. Itselected OCS as its core convergence platform.

The company faced several challenges, however, in implementing MicrosoftOCS in conjunction with VoIP on its existing infrastructure. Thesechallenges included:

--  Avoiding costly PBX replacement and/or re-configuration--  Ensuring reliability of communication between all internal and    external end-points--  Supporting existing fax machines, door phones, and other legacy analog    devices--  Implementing Auto-Attendant functionality for three different    languages (French, Dutch, and English) for a single inbound number--  Allowing the company to migrate to Microsoft UC over time in a manner    that makes the most sense for the business    

To address these challenges, Brepols selected the NET VX1200 gateway. TheVX Series intelligent VoIP switches and gateways provide flexible'any-to-any' connectivity, robust call routing functions, Active Directoryintegration, and the granular control of messaging parameters necessary toaccommodate complex Microsoft OCS configurations. The VX Series alsoprovides essential features such as SIP registration for WiFi clients,embedded QoS mechanisms, and simplified connectivity to both PSTN andexternal IP telephony service providers -- which gives the company optimumflexibility for reducing its international toll charges.

Because of this rich, complete feature set, Brepols was able to fulfill allof its communications objectives without project delays, cost over-runs, orunexpected problems.

"NET's VX Series enabled Brepols to quickly and effectively implementhighly sophisticated converged communications in a relatively small -- butstill rather complex -- existing infrastructure," said Wim Borgers, IT andAdministration Manager for Brepols. "We are extremely satisfied with boththe functionality of NET's hardware and the obvious expertise that NETdemonstrated in accommodating our very exacting technical requirements."

"There are a lot of potentially lucrative things that companies can do withcommunications to improve their bottom lines, but there can also besignificant obstacles to achieving those short- and long-term projectgoals," said Chuck Rutledge, VP of Corporate Marketing for NET. "Brepolshas used the advanced VoIP gateway features found in the VX1200 to addressthe complexities of integrating Microsoft OCS into their network. Theirroadmap has a number of challenges, including SIP WiFi clients registeredto the VX, SIP trunks to other countries, such as France, the US and Italy,and Polycom SIP phones. All of these can be addressed with the VX Series."

For more information on the Brepols unified communications deployment, seethe case study at: http://www.net.com/Pages/ProductDownloads.aspx?pgid=170

About Network Equipment Technologies, Inc.

For nearly a quarter of a century, Network Equipment Technologies, Inc.(NET) has provided voice and data communications equipment formulti-service networks requiring high degrees of versatility,interoperability, security and performance. NET's broad family of productsare purpose-built for mixed-service, multi-protocol networks;bandwidth-sensitive site communications; high performance,security-sensitive transmissions; and converged communications. Thecompany's NX Series for network exchange solutions and VX Series for voiceexchange solutions enable interoperability and integration with existingnetworks for seamless migration to secure IP-based voice and datacommunications. In addition, Quintum, a subsidiary of NET, delivers VoIPaccess solutions that bring the reliability and voice clarity of publictelephone networks to Internet telephony.

Visit www.net.com for more information.