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CRM Vendor IFS Gets Verizon Business WAN
TMCnet Contributing Editor
Verizon (News - Alert) Business has announced that it will provide Swedish CRM vendor IFS with a standardized Wide Area Network (WAN) infrastructure, consolidating the management of 60 global sites.
IFS Applications provides extended ERP functionality, including supply chain management (SCM); enterprise asset management (EAM); maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO); product lifecycle management (PLM); customer relationship management (CRM); and corporate performance management (CPM) capabilities.
IFS has more than 500,000 users across seven key vertical sectors: aerospace & defense, automotive, high-tech, industrial manufacturing, process industries, construction & facilities management, and utilities & telecom.
The new agreement extends the companies' existing relationship and calls for Verizon Business to implement an MPLS-based Managed Private IP network that will centralize all of IFS' network management at its headquarters, while also providing a connection between key IFS hub sites in Sri Lanka, Sweden and the United States.
The Verizon Business WAN replaces infrastructure previously supported by an array of different suppliers.
About a month ago Verizon Business announced it would provide an advanced Contact Center Service to help the Red Cross improve its emergency response for disaster victims.
Verizon Business can route calls to Red Cross disaster relief agents located anywhere in the United States. In addition to the advanced call routing, Verizon Business will provide the Red Cross with wide area network connectivity, managed network services, toll-free Enhanced Call Routing, an interactive voice response service, Contact Center Professional Services and customer premises equipment.
Nancy Gofus, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Business, said "our portfolio enables the Red Cross to more quickly and efficiently provide emergency assistance to impacted Americans."
Once fully implemented, the Verizon Business service will support the call handling and case processing of as many as one million claims from eligible Red Cross disaster clients over a 10-day period, Verizon officials say.
Disaster clients will call an event-specific, toll-free number that Verizon Business will route to call centers and work-at-home agents, including U.S. veterans and disabled Americans who will answer calls on behalf of the Red Cross from locations across the country.
IFS sells component-based business software for open standards, and bills itself as one of the first vendors to deliver Service Oriented Architecture capabilities, involving the use of loosely coupled software services to support the requirements of the business processes and software use.
In recent years IFS has globalized its internal business processes and centralized its system service support. This has increased its demand for one secure and stable network to do such things as enable the secure, real time sharing of designs and information between the development hub sites of Sri Lanka and Sweden.
John Irvine, vice president of international marketing, Verizon Business, said the product chosen by IFS could be upgraded and scaled up to "future proof" its network, saying IFS is evaluating voice over IP and video conferencing.
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims’ columnist page.
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