Many companies these days are either considering bringing in a unified communications (UC) system or have already done so, with very few remaining with the standard phone system for anything more than local operations. One such major firm making the jump to UC is BQ, a well-known technology firm in Europe. To make the jump possible, it's turning to Interoute, which both owns and operates the largest cloud services platform in Europe.

More specifically, BQ is turning to Interoute's Virtual Data Center (VDC) for a new UC operation that will reach both customers and employees alike. With Interoute VDC, BQ can bring in a complete call center solution as well as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) operation capable of supporting 1,000 different employees across several international offices. Reports suggest that, so far, the new solution has meant some great cost savings thanks to the sheer scope of Interoute's infrastructure, which extends worldwide and is sufficiently substantial to allow for economies of scale. The VDC offers the necessary level of on-demand service, as well as storage and applications, to help make such a wide-ranging communications system possible. Better yet, it does so without requiring a lot of new infrastructure added internally; since it's mostly cloud-based, it can be readily scaled to meet demand, and in a fashion that keeps costs down.

BQ's IT manager, Mario Fernandez, weighed in on the move to bring in Interoute's operations, saying “One of the main BQ objectives is to give the best user support. So, we chose Interoute to provide and guarantee the performance of our telephony service. The VoIP solution provided by Interoute meets all our needs: hosted private cloud, high availability and the ability to quickly scale and expand when needed.”

Perhaps the only real surprise about all this is that BQ is just at this point with a new solution; a major technology firm really should have made the move sooner. Still, issues of timing aside, BQ is likely to see plenty of positive fallout from this development in terms of better communication, better reaction to issues and the ability to take advantage of opportunities that emerge in the process. Opening it up to customers as well as to employees is also likely to prove advantageous, as the employees in several different countries will be able to better collaborate without requiring physical travel. What's more, customers will be able to get necessary information faster and easier, and that makes for a better customer experience and improved likelihood of return business.

BQ's move to UC will likely prove beneficial in the end for a host of reasons, and though it may have been a bit slower to react than some of its contemporaries, there won't be any loss of positive outcome by bringing it in now. Using Interoute's services should further streamline the process.