IP In A Hurry

Ten days can seem like an eternity when you're waiting for test results or approaching that much-needed vacation. But for Houston-based Cooper Compression, a provider of compression equipment for the oil, gas and power industries, 10 days was all it had to launch an IP-based communications system and new call center in time for the company's move to a new building last September.

"Our old analog system was not large enough, so we had to either go forward with updating the old phone system or do something different," says Roland Etcheverry, vice president of information technology at Cooper Compression.

Why only 10 days? Turns out the corporate-approval process for Cooper Compression's major IT projects had recently changed, so by the time Etcheverry got the green light for the capital expenditure, there was only a little more than a week to go before the big move. In preparation, Etcheverry had been in talks with two local solution providers--eNET for a Cisco IP Communications Solution, which it had worked with in the past, and another company he wouldn't name for an Avaya analog/digital hybrid solution.

The Friday he received approval, Etcheverry called both solution providers to see if they could give him a definite answer on completing the project in time for the move. Chris Laflin, vice president of sales and marketing at eNET Solutions, said he could finish the project, though admitted it would be tight.

The other solution provider didn't come back with a definitive answer. Plus, "it was clear their pricing wasn't in the ballpark of what the Cisco solution would be for us," says Etcheverry, adding that he kept getting the feeling the provider was trying to sell a hybrid model, even though Etcheverry was set on a straight VoIP solution.

"We needed all of our phone, printing and faxing on one network. We had a coherent plan to centralize around an active directory, and we wanted a solution that played to the future, not to the past," Etcheverry says. "But they kept making the case that it's a high-risk move to VoIP."

But Etcheverry says he wasn't convinced. "I've been researching VoIP for about four years, and I know we're not in the first awakening moments of VoIP. Cisco is the largest and fastest player in VoIP," he explains.

As a last measure, Etcheverry drove to eNET Solutions' office to "sit down and look [Laflin] in the eye" to get a sense that he could trust eNET. Laflin assured Etcheverry that the crucial pieces of the solution had already been ordered and that Cisco was working with them to divert inventory to their project to get it done ASAP.