Novant Health - Voice Network Transformation

Novant Health is a not-for-profit integrated system of 15 medical centers and more than 1,600 physicians in over 640 locations, as well as numerous outpatient surgery centers, medical plazas, rehabilitation programs, diagnostic imaging centers and community health outreach programs. Novant Health's more than 28,000 team members and physician partners care for patients and communities in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia.

Communications Challenge

Novant Health had 57,000 TDM & analog phones deployed across 167 separate phone systems, and a robust TDM-based Nortel CS 2100 operating in its largest facilities for 7 years with ZERO downtime, including during upgrades. However since the hospital wanted to modernize its communications infrastructure and collapse all its locations into a single system to improve communications services across their network, it required an IP-based solution.

Communications Solution

Ribbon provided Novant with a seamless way to upgrade their CS 2100 to a Ribbon C20 and Application Server. This solution delivers the scale and resiliency Novant had come to rely on as well as support for standards-based SIP phones and gateways to support thousands of analog phones. The modern IP architecture enables Novant to create a single, distributed phone system for all their sites. Novant is saving millions of dollars by reusing thousands of existing endpoints while upgrading to the latest technology where it makes sense.

The Ribbon Difference

Ribbon acquired Nortel’s carrier voice business in 2010 and has evolved the software it acquired then, including the Nortel SL-100 and CS 2100 by creating new software releases with features and bug fixes that extend the useful life of these platforms. Additionally, Ribbon’s C20 Call Controllers and Application Server (AS) offer cost-effective migrations for these platforms. To this day, no other company has created an evolution for the SL-100 and CS 2100 software.