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Abercrombie and Fitch accessorizes
its routers with VoIP
By , NetworkWorld.com, 11/03/03
If you've got teenagers, then you know that gear from Abercrombie and Fitch is a
must-have. But you may not know that that the popular clothier is in the midst of
a large VoIP rollout to all of its 600-plus North American stores.
Abercrombie is deploying IP phones and VoIP-enabled routers from Cisco to 644
stores, mostly based in shopping malls. Each store will receive between two to
five Cisco IP phones, a small switch, and a Cisco 1700 series router running
CallManager Express - a version of Cisco's IOS software that allows its access
routers to act as mini-IP PBXs.
The routers, IP phones and switches will replace Panasonic key telephone
systems in all of Abercrombie's stores over the next year, according to Steven
Graves, senior manage of network technology for Abercrombie and Fitch. The
routers in each store will be linked to PSTN trunks, allowing the phones to make
public calls. A T-1 will link the routers to Abercrombie's corporate WAN, which
will allow for free inter-store calls. The stores will also be managed over the WAN
by a centralized Cisco CallManager server, located in the company's
headquarters near Columbus, Ohio.
Graves says the deployments in each store are small enough that he is not
worried about configuring complex QoS settings or voice quality. Analog phone
lines will also be hooked into the routers, allowing for 911 calls or emergency
backup links if there are IP or LAN problems.
CallManager Express is a new product, but the function of using a Cisco access
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2. router as a phone switch has been around for years. Cisco says around 2,000
users have been running in the field with the IOS Telephony Services image. The
company only spun this feature into a separate product offering last month, after
Cisco engineers felt the software was battle-tested enough. Depending on the
amount of users, it costs around as little as $780, and as much as $2,800, to add
CallManager Express - which supports 120 users and under. A hardware module
that adds voicemail to the router can also be added for around $3,000.
CallManager Express and the voicemail module work with Cisco 1700, 2600 and
3700 series routers.
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