Winning Cases in North America

In our June 2025 edition of iPECS Insights, we focused on real-world success stories from North America. These sessions bring our global partner network together to explore how iPECS solutions are creating value across a range of industries.

Hosted by Chuck Ferber, Account Manager at iPECS based in the US, this month’s insights shared a selection of recent deployments across healthcare, education, manufacturing, and contractor environments, highlighting how iPECS platforms such as UCP, vUCP, and eMG100 are solving business challenges in both cloud and on-premise environments.

Introduction from Chuck Ferber

Chuck opened the session by welcoming attendees and introducing the focus of today’s presentation, where we will hear on deployments across various vertical markets.

Chuck highlighted that a key recurring trend is the continued strength and use of eMG100, particularly in education and daycare environments, as well as the increasing traction of vUCP and UCP in more complex environments.

iPECS in North America – Presence Management

Chuck then introduced Bob Rankin, President of Presence Management, a leading telephony and data distributor based in Ohio with over 30 years of expertise. Bob explained that the biggest challenges they encounter are sites and organizations with unique needs. In particular, he highlighted the case of the US Navy.

In the Navy, system demands go above and beyond typical unified communications setups. One limitation had been the loss of all physical UCP connections, which required a creative solution. As a result, Presence Management developed a software package through the iPECS API to deliver cloud features. Through this development, Presence Management can now deliver projects that a hosted system couldn’t solely do. This deployment underlines how iPECS’s open architecture and flexible APIs enable partners to meet even the most specialized customer requirements.

vUCP for a Multi-Site Contractor

Another project highlighted by Presence Management was for an Ohio-based contractor that delivers durable infrastructures tailored to the needs of commercial, institutional, and industrial clients. The contractor needed an exceptionally reliable system to support multiple high-demand locations. To achieve this, Presence Management provided:

  • vUCP across 3 locations in 2 cities
  • Supporting over 250 users including 200 UCS Power clients
  • 65+ terminals (primarily 1020i)
  • 48 SIP trunks with full-time AWS-based call recording via vIPCR

Presence Management has also been the voice contractor for most of the contractor’s school   building projects in Ohio, further validating the platform’s reliability for multi-site deployments with tight uptime requirements.

CTD – meeting evolving demands

Bob then handed over to Sean Robertson, CEO of CTD (Computer Telephony Distributing), a value-added distributor of iPECS solutions and other networking products. Sean went on to share successful cases that CTD had completed. Focused primarily on the on-premise market in the US, CTD have been working with UCP for quite some time and noted that it is often the main product they use for most sites and clients. Sean noted that there are many industries that are likely to stay with on-premise systems due to varying factors, including sectors such as medical, manufacturing, and government.

More recently, CTD have seen a shift in the market with key vendors like Mitel and NEC exiting the market. This has also opened more opportunities in education settings. Mitel’s declining presence has led many organizations to seek more cost-effective and deployable alternatives. This has tipped the scale for CTD, with a number of clients now turning to them for phone system support. One example Sean shared was for the Early Education Academy.

Early Education Academy – eMG100 deployment

Early education is a rapidly growing segment requiring affordable, reliable, and easy-to-deploy systems. The national childcare chain was using Mitel across their current sites, which was costly. One of the most important criteria for the Academy was ensuring security and simple access control. With over 300 existing locations and 200 new sites in planning this was a standout deployment for CTD. The project consisted of:

Deployment Strategy:

  • Standard setup per site: eMG100 with KSU, COIU4, 13 x 1010i, and 2 x 1030i handsets
  • Central programming and deployment model
  • Emphasis on safety, access control, and cost-efficiency
  • Cost-effective for the dealer to program 300+ locations
  • Ease of deployment over multiple independent sites which followed this process:
    • Build the initial template
    • Load to a bench system
    • Create a ‘Master File’ backup
    • Load to each new system prior to deployment
    • Change the MAC addresses to reflect new site and go

 

This approach enabled rapid replication across locations and created a predictable revenue stream, while meeting the security needs of education clients.

Nutritional supplement manufacturer – vUCP hybrid deployment

Sean then discussed a manufacturing client case study. Manufacturing is CTD’s specialism, with many wins in the sector. The client was a manufacturer whose previous dealer was Cisco. Cisco had changed their model, which no longer aligned with the needs of the manufacturer. They wanted a new deal, so they came to CTD to review the suitability of iPECS.