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Introduction

Toyota Australia has become the first com-pany outside Japan to implement NEC’sground-breaking ‘pure’ IP solut ion,UNIVERGE, with the opening of their newcorporate Headquarters in Victoria, Austra-lia.

The building is the first Toyota facility in theworld to embrace NEC’s IP technology, boast-ing a robust voice and data infrastructure de-signed to support Toyota well into the future.

Toyota Australia CEO, Ted Okada saidtechnology had always been an integral com-ponent of the building’s design.

“We wanted the advanced architectural andenvironmental design of the facility to bematched with a leading edge converged voiceand data network,” said Mr. Okada.

“Our search for a technology partner led usto NEC — and the result was the implemen-tation of a full IP telephony solution.”

Mr. Okada said Toyota were delighted thatthe commitment and excellence to technologythat drives their innovation in vehicle manu-facture, has been reflected in NEC’s commit-ment to developing an IP solution.

“This new building clearly reflects Toyota’sposition as a visionary leader in the automo-tive space. With the NEC technology, we havefurther reinforced our reputation for ingenu-ity, creativity and technical excellence.”

Selecting NEC Business Solutions

Plans for implementing a new IP technologysolution at Toyota Australia’s CorporateHeadquarters were based around a require-ment for flexibility, high availability of the

Oh What aFeeling!Toyota and NEC Forge AustralianTechnology Partnership

Minoru MORITSUGUAssistant Chief EngineerTechnology GroupNEC Business Solutions Ltd.

Gary HASTIEAccount ManagerSolution GroupNEC Business Solutions Ltd.

Mr. Ted Okada, Toyota Australia CEO

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Photo 1 Toyota Australia new Corporate Headquarters.The newly built Toyota Australia Corporate Headquarters in Melbourne, Victoria.

Photo 2 Inside the new Toyota Australia Headquarterbuilding.

network, cost effectiveness, and future savingsin carrier costs.

Toyota Australia’s Divisional General Man-ager of Knowledge and Information Systems,Peter Holland said the new technology notonly had to reflect the innovation of the build-ing, but had to be in line with the company’skey corporate mission, “Be the best in every-thing we do.”

“This building was always envisioned to bea centerpiece and showcase for the innovativetechnology we use at Toyota,” said Mr.Holland.

“We needed a long-term partner offeringleading edge IP technology that would remainat the forefront of telephony development foryears to come.”

Following the tender process, NEC was in-vited to install and demonstrate its technol-ogy onsite — including VoIP, unified messag-ing, contact centre technology, wireless LANand cordless telephony solutions — to ensurethe solution would be fully integrated andcompatible with existing Toyota technology.

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Fig. 1 Toyota Australia Voice Network.Each site at Altona, Brisbane, Sydney, Port Melbourne have mesh connection with CCIS over IP. PortMelbourne existing building and the new Headquarters is connected and in operation with FCCS over IP.

Proof of Concept

To ensure a risk-free installation, NEC en-gineers pre-staged the Toyota solution, simu-lating and testing in the NEC R&D labora-tory in Melbourne, Victoria. As further proofof concept, the solution was also dem-onstrated to Toyota employees onsite.

The proof of concept was built in anold office environment at Toyota’s PortMelbourne site to demonstrate thecompatibility of equipment. The exist-ing IPX was upgraded to provide thecore telephony functionality and to sup-port the trial VoIP Dterm handsets.

Faced with a very tight timeframe, theNEC Engineering team evaluated thenew SV7000 and completed VoIPinteroperability testing with the IPX,running a new version of software andFCCS (Fusion Call Control Signaling).Significantly, this configuration had

never been undertaken outside Japan. Follow-ing the successful testing process, the solutionwas shipped and installed in the new Austra-lian Corporate Headquarters.

Photo 3 Office with NEC solution at the new Headquarter.

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The NEC Solution

The NEC solution implemented at ToyotaAustralia included the Active Voice AD-64with unified messaging to Lotus Notes,Enterasys wireless access points andSpectra l ink cord less handsets . TheUNIVERGE SV7000 was the core telephonyequipment utilized.

The solution combined and deployed for thefirst time, NEC’s new IP Dterms, LAN, Wire-less LAN, IP cordless telephones, soft phones,Active Voice unif ied messaging andeDirectory with Click2Dial in one rollout. Theproject management team, including a rangeof NEC partners, completed the installationjust four weeks prior to the opening of the newbuilding.

The solution includes 410 IP Dterms, and 16IP cordless handsets operating in a FCCS

Network. The existing NEC IPX still supportsthe majority of the traditional telephony inanother Toyota building located at the samesite in Port Melbourne, with the remainder ofthe Toyota Australia voice network still work-ing over VoIP Trunks using CCIS#7 signal-ing.

According to Toyota Australia’s PeterHolland, the NEC technology paves the wayfor future technology developments across thecompany.

“This NEC solution has put us at the fore-front of technology in the Toyota world andthroughout corporate Australia.”

Fig. 2 New Headquarter network overview at Port Melbourne.