An international brokerage firm serves investment clients in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom through its branch network of nearly 10,000 locations. The firm focuses solely on individual investors and small-business owners. It is a member of the New York Stock Exchange and all other major stock exchanges.

The brokerage firm had outgrown their current telephony platform and wanted their employees to leverage more advanced communication applications on a single platform. They needed to roll out a Voice over IP (VoIP) network to allow for better communications with their nearly 10,000 satellite offices worldwide. The brokerage firm knew VoIP provided considerable cost savings, but the primary goal for implementation was to make business easier for its Financial Advisors.

Heavy financial investment was made by installing T1s at all branch sites and millions were spent on Voice over IP equipment. The brokerage firm realized that part of the investment in a VoIP network includes training. Their technicians had many years of experience in voice or data communications, however, very few had experience in both, which was crucial to the massive project's success. The brokerage firm needed to train their technicians quickly and accurately to ensure a successful roll-out.

We have vast experience with VoIP implementation training, and took the time to fully understand brokerage firm's needs. We also had the ability to quickly develop and administer a tailored solution, allowing the brokerage firm to meet their project deadlines.

The training solution was delivered in four stages. The first stage focused on building a strong networking foundation by delivering content from the existing courses, Understanding Networking Fundamentals and TCP/IP Networking, ensuring students from different backgrounds were all starting at the same level. After the foundation was established, the next stage covered data and voice convergence from Telecommunication Fundamentals and VoIP Foundations.

The third stage focused on advanced topics such as circuit-to-packet switching, packetizing voice, SIP, RTP, and QoS. Once the technicians had these strong foundational skills, the last stage was product training, which taught the students how to configure the purchased Cisco VoIP equipment.

Each stage was essential to helping students develop well rounded skill sets and ensuring a successful VoIP implementation.

We met and exceeded the brokerage firms' main requirement of meeting a strict rollout schedule. In 12 months, we ensured a smooth, successful implementation of the new VoIP network, and received rave reviews from the students and the managers for its work.