Swisscom (Schweiz) AG has replaced its Conferencing-Platform with a Lindenbaum conferencing system. The new platform can be used not only to hold conference calls but also simultaneous web conferences, e.g. online presentations. The scope of services provided by Swisscom has been extended by the addition of a wide range of self-service conferencing products on top of the current operator-supported premium products.

The platform used to date by Swisscom was a so-called "Audio Bridge", whereby a number of telephone lines are interconnected to allow telephone conferencing. For many years Swisscom had been using an Avaya Conferencing-Platform S700 (previously Spectel) for this purpose. Following the announcement by Avaya in 2009 that the service contract for these platforms would no longer be renewed, Swisscom made most of the opportunity to migrate to a Lindenbaum platform which would allow them to offer simultaneous web-conferencing. In addition to the operator-supported premium products, such as event conferences, offered by Swisscom to date, a broad range of self-service conferencing services are now available.   

The Lindenbaum conferencing platform was tailored and expanded to fit the requirements of Swisscom (Schweiz) AG, thereby enabling its integration into the existing infrastructure. This required the connection of Swisscom’s existing peripheral systems to the Lindenbaum platform. Data required to use the conferencing services need to be transferred to the in-house billing system using WebService. In addition, the conferencing system was integrated into Swisscom’s Single-Sign-On-System. Swisscom customers can use these so-called “eServices” to gain direct access to all of their online services.

Under the leadership of project manager Kerstin Buth, Lindenbaum developed a meticulous schedule for the migration of the entire database, including all customer and conference data, from the current conferencing system to the new Lindenbaum platform within just 3 days.  Following installation of the system at numerous data centres across Switzerland, and a subsequent test phase, the new platform was given the Go-Live. The extensive knowledge gained by Lindenbaum about the Avaya conferencing platform and its data models has led to the further refinement of its migration tools. These will be used in future and similar migration projects involving the S700 / S780 bridges.