Cirrus Informatique Case Study

Customer	Cirrus Informatique Bruno K. Tel: +262 262 55 19 20 www.cirrus-info.com	Network Diagram:
Industry	Transportation & Banking
Solution	Three Xorcom XR2000 IP-PBX
Distributor	VoIPon Solutions UK Ltd.
Main Challenge	To establish a communications link between headquarters on Reunion Island and the subsidiary on Mauritius Island. The islands are separated by 240 km of water with no direct submarine or satellite link between them. Therefore, all IP traffic is routed through Paris – a distance of 9000 km!
Testimonial	“It was just amazing. The system was shut down for only a few hours, and the test system immediately became the production system.”

Overview

The customer’s main challenge was to establish a communications link between their headquarters on Reunion Island and their subsidiary in Mauritius Island. Although there is only 240 km of water separating the two islands, until recently there was no direct submarine or satellite link between them. Therefore, all IP traffic was routed through Paris, France which is located 9000 kilometers away from Reunion Island!

Since there were no telephony providers that could handle both islands, the customer decided to start the job by themselves.

Customer Requirements

Proposed Solution

The Xorcom XR2000 fits snugly inside the Cirrus standard communication rack.

After considering different systems, they decided to choose Xorcom. Xorcom had good reviews on the Internet. After discovering that Xorcom supported Elastix and trixbox distributions “out-of-the-box”, the customer purchased three XR2000 IP-PBX appliances, two for production and one as a spare.

Results

Without any particular previous knowledge about Asterisk, the customer thought it would be better to test everything. They first plugged one Xorcom in just to have a look and play around with it a bit, planning to shut it down a couple of hours later. Within a few minutes, however, they found that some of the IP phones were already working, so they started to test ISDN. They were surprised to discover that they could place and receive calls immediately! They simply configured the receptionist’s phone and it was working. The system was shut down for only a few hours, and the test system immediately became the production system.

It took a couple of weeks to finalize the voicemails, the pickup groups, and the trunk between the offices; everything was done with the Web browser.

Testimonial

“Since we were unfamiliar with Asterisk, we expected that the installation, implementation and testing cycle would take a few weeks,” stated Bruno, at Cirrus Informatique, “but in reality, since Xorcom configuration was so intuitive, our phone system was shut down for only a few hours.”

“We were very satisfied that the communication is really clear, despite the 18,000 kilometers that the IP traffic travels between Reunion and Mauritius. Also, because the two Xorcom PBXs are connected, it is very simple to call each side and since these communications are over the Internet it was a major downsize of our costs.”

Cirrus Informatique headquarters on Reunion Island.

About Cirrus Informatique

Cirrus Informatique was founded in 1991 by its current two managing directors. Cirrus is involved in two industries, namely the Airline and Banking sectors.

As “bank at home” products were not available at the time for medium sized banks located near the Indian Ocean, Cirrus Informatique created some products in this area: first by developing solutions for the French Minitel system, and then continuing through the Internet boom. Cirrus also offers a solution that sends instant messages (SMS) to their banking clients.

In the Airline Industry, Cirrus’ main product is the Revenue Accounting Software solution which ensures the financial management of various stages of an airline ticket’s lifespan. Other products that offered are in crew management and yield management – two other sectors of the airline industry.

In 2004, Cirrus Informatique established a new branch in Mauritius, with its main activity focusing on the Airline industry and providing Broker Price Opinion (BPO) services on software. For more information, see www.cirrus-info.com.

About VoIPon Solutions UK Ltd.

VoIPon Solutions UK Ltd. distributes the world’s market-leading voice over IP equipment and services to businesses. Looking globally for inspiration, the company led the UK market into the Voice over IP space and is one of the most established companies in the region. By bringing best-of-breed equipment and standards of service to businesses both within the UK and abroad, and empowering its knowledgeable staff to build relationships with its customers, VoIPon helps businesses reduce the total cost of ownership of their telecom systems and devices. A division of Keison International, founded in 1986, VoIPon is a financially stable enterprise. More information on the company can be found at www.voipon.co.uk.  

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