As IT systems become more prevalent in every area of business, EBOs have increasingly sophisticated needs in terms of networking services.

Staff at EBOs require access to the same services as those at HQ in order to manage the supply chain, monitor inventory, place orders, ensure the satisfaction of their customers and maintain accurate accounting records and since EBOs are often the places where customers interface with the company, it is vital that their IT systems deliver the features and performance they require to promote a professional image of the company. At the same time, the network needs to be secure, reliable and easy to maintain, ideally requiring no on-site IT knowledge.

edgeBOX addresses these needs by providing an all-in-one solution based on the latest networking technologies combined with a robust hardware platform and the facilities for complete remote management.

IT technology that is reliable and requires little technical support

edgeBOX is based on dedicated hardware and robust software providing a highly available and reliable system. Since it is a fully integrated “all-in-one” device there are fewer devices and interfaces than can fail. If edgeBOX does fail, time to locate and rectify the fault is reduced and a replacement unit can be swapped in and restored from automatically produced backup files to the identical configuration as the failed unit in a matter of minutes.

A converged network with reduced maintenance costs

edgeBOX replaces multiple devices which are costly to acquire, integrate and maintain. The resulting complete converged networking solution requires less administration and maintenance meaning less time and money is spent than on a separate voice and data communications infrastructure. Additionally, support services can be provided from corporate HQ, reducing or eliminating the need for IT staff deployment at EBOs and allowing centralised control and monitoring of all network resources.

A solution that scales as the number of users grow and functional requirements increase

edgeBOX is based on open standards and has a flexible architecture that enables new services to be added while the device is still operational. Dedicated, enterprise class hardware provides the platform for edgeBOX software and it can be easily upgraded to provide additional capacity for new users or services. Features such as RAID disks and multi-processor boards can be incorporated to improve resilience and redundancy.

Services that can be easily deployed and managed remotely without the need for on-site intervention

All of the services in edgeBOX can be accessed remotely via a single, integrated web management interface. This comes complete with wizards for initial setup and several pre-defined templates for typical usage scenarios to reduce installation and setup time.An additional application is available that can holistically manage a number of installed edgeBOX units as a single entity from within a company’s central IT support facility. Features of the application include proactive alerts, inventory management and upload of default configurations. Downtime can be minimised by configuring edgeBOX upgrades to be automatically downloaded and installed for times when services are not in use.

Providing the benefits of IP Telephony

Installing edgeBOX at each branch office reduces costs in terms of:

• Eliminating call charges between offices using the IP network
• Reducing long distance and mobile call charges by subscribing to an Internet Telephony Service Provider
• Providing least cost routing so that calls can be routed over the most cost effective PSTN or IP network
• Eliminating the need for costly hardware such as proprietary PBX systems
• Allowing for integration with productivity enhancing applications such as CRM