GBM takes Etihad to the next leap in business communications

The contract between both parties was signed today at a ceremony held at the Etihad Airways headquarters.

GBM, the certified Cisco Gold Partner since 2003, was selected by Etihad Airways to establish a high performance, converged, secure and scalable network infrastructure in line with the Etihad business requirements. This move is critical to the success of the overall business strategy for Etihad.

"Etihad Airways and GBM are working closely to design and deploy a Cisco unified advanced network to meet the business needs of Etihad Airways and our customers. GBM's extensive experience in deploying IP solutions will enable us to achieve our objectives,"

said Richard Dawson Executive Vice President Information & Technology

The IP telephony solutions package is a system comprising of a fully integrated and redundant architecture featuring voice/data services, video and web collaboration, as well as a call conferencing and accounting system.

"IP communications, the merging of voice and data application over a single network is altering the business communications landscape by enhancing IT telephony with powerful applications that significantly enhance the workers productivity," explained Mr. Akram Jawhary, Country General Manager from GBM.

Etihad airways recognizes the Cisco unified communications solution as the ideal choice to leverage the strengths of a converged voice and data system that enables communications across the network and provides new services while also significantly reducing overhead costs. GBM deployed a Layered defense in-depth security solution that features Network Intrusions Prevention Systems, Network Access control, and End-Point security to protect against unauthorized/un-trusted / unclean devices from accessing trusted resources.

The top three reasons businesses merge their voice and data systems are reduced costs, improved productivity and the ability to provide anytime, anywhere access to corporate data.

"Organizations are rapidly adopting the converged IP-based network infrastructure to simplify their needs while adding increased speed, flexibility and bandwidth. IP communications not only simplify IT administrations and dramatically enhance employee productivity, they also offer a single network with single wire to the desktop, lower maintenance costs, increase productivity, reduced toll costs, extend to workers wherever they are and offer centralized maintenance, personalized control, presence advantage and scalability," said Mr. Jawhary.

Mr. Jawhary, concluded," We are proud that we are able through the use of Cisco Technologies to provide Etihad with the communications support needed."