Credit Union Seeks Faster Network.

UW Credit Union looked to Norlight when they needed a faster, more efficient network. Already a Norlight customer, they decided to upgrade their network and equipment, as well as reduce their current number of communications vendors.

The UW Credit Union serves students, faculty, alumni and staff at four of the University of Wisconsin's campuses, as well as the general public. The home office and four satellite branch offices are located in Madison, WI. Milwaukee, Green Bay and Whitewater, WI are home to one branch office each. Before the UW Credit Union decided to make a change, Norlight supplied them with two 56k private lines and one T-1 line that connected their remote sites to their host site in Madison.

"As our banking operations grew and we added more locations, we needed to improve our network's efficiency, integration and manageability," said Matt Schultz, Manager of Network Administration at the UW Credit Union. "Under our previous network, we had 14 different communications vendors, which made troubleshooting and billing much more difficult." Schultz added that their previous network wasn't well documented, which made it difficult to find and fix problems. "Our new network structure is fully documented, so if something goes wrong we know where to find it and can fix it quickly."

To give the UW Credit Union the one-stop solution they desired, Norlight partnered with Digicorp, a provider of high quality voice, data and video communications solutions. Norlight rep, Sue Godfrey and network engineer, Dan Kutchin, along with Digicorp, proposed a full T-1 with a Cisco proxy server and a frame relay network that allowed voice over the frame. Also included in the package were dedicated long distance services with switched long distance services for overflow, Cisco equipment for the Wide Area Network, a Tadrian Phone System for all sites and paging and cellular service.

"They needed a network that would allow them to add more branches easily and save money on long distance, bandwidth usage and equipment, which is exactly why we proposed a frame relay network," said Godfrey. The private line that the UW Credit Union used prior to upgrading was priced based on the distance, and each location required its own equipment. With the new frame relay network, the pricing is distance insensitive, and requires much less equipment than the private line did.

To manage the project successfully, the UW Credit Union, Digicorp and Norlight set up weekly conference calls, site turn-up time lines and worked through the tasks that were to be accomplished throughout the project. Through this process, a timeframe of six months was established to make sure the project was completed in a timely manner.

After the initial planning, a beta test site was set up at Norlight's offices to run a simulated network comparable to what the UW Credit Union would be running. Digicorp supplied the equipment and Norlight set up the network. "We set up the beta test site to ensure the project would flow smoothly when we actually turned-up the customer's site," said Godfrey, "this helped us identify and fix potential problems without disrupting the customer's network." After a successful beta test, the Internet and long distance services were set up, and all remote sites were connected to the network.

As the phone systems were brought up over the frame relay network and the long distance T-1 was transferred to the new switch, engineers were stationed at each remote site to ensure a smooth transition. Thirty-six hours later, the system was up and running with no disruptions to the UW Credit Union's service. "Everyone involved on this project participated in a true task-owner mentality, working with diligence and professionalism throughout the project," said Godfrey.

Schultz stated that due to the Norlight/Digicorp project, the UW Credit Union has saved money and become more efficient. "Having voice and data on the same network is much more efficient," said Schultz, "our new long distance service has cut our cost in half, and we now only need to call one vendor for support." In addition, Schultz said that he is so pleased with the new network's efficiency, he plans on adding three more branches in the next two years. "I'm ecstatic about how well the entire project went," said Schultz, "These folks are bar-none the best in the business."