Cisco Partners Ikon, ShoreGroup Named CRN Best In Show

Ikon Office Solutions ShoreGroup CRN'

In a difficult economy, IT managers are asking for ROI justification on all projects deployed. But Ikon was able to show the customer something beyond cost savings: a solution that could potentially save lives.

Ikon built a packaged solution for IP video surveillance that helped the Seal Beach, Cailf., Police Department provide field officers with access to video cameras within commercial sites.

Mark Smitt, sales manager at Ikon, said the city of Seal Beach had been working on the project with Loronix, a manufacturer of digital recording devices, but was having difficulty integrating the wireless connectivity. Ikon, a Cisco Systems Gold partner, arrived on the scene six months into the project and brought the application to fruition by establishing the critical wireless connections.

Ikon built a packaged solution for IP video surveillance using Cisco's wireless 802.11b technology, Access Control Server and L.E.A.P. Due to the security requirements of the application, Cisco's S.A.F.E. blueprint was used to prevent unauthorized access to video streams.

As part of the application, video is transmitted from a commercial site, such as a bank, to the police dispatch center and then off to the squad cars. The implementation has been in production for three to four months, said Smitt. The first commercial site is Washington Mutual Bank. The police department hopes to expand the sites to stores, as well as public buildings such as schools, he said.

The second Best In Show award went to ShoreGroup, a Cisco Gold solution provider that has managed more than 30 projects for Verizon Wireless, selling over $10 million in Cisco infrastructure and $2 million in maintenance and service contracts.

ShoreGroup, a two-year-old firm, specializes in IP telephony and network management and has grown from six employees to 70 today, said President and COO Robert Ditta.

Originally, ShoreGroup was asked to upgrade Verizon Wireless' switched infrastructure. But within the past 18 months, the solution provider has also provided its client IP telephony training, deployment and proactive monitoring and maintenance, along with support for the Cisco contact center product suite.

ShoreGroup has also been able to provide contact center consulting with its own CaseSentry management services. The ability to offer the CaseSentry network management services helped ShoreGroup win the deal, Ditta said.

Today, ShoreGroup monitors Cisco switches, routers, servers, Aspect/Rockwell TDM ACD Systems and ICM software for Verizon Wireless customer contact centers throughout the United States.

In total, CRN has given out 10 Best In Show awards and will profile the winners in October in its Fastest Growing Solution Provider supplement.