Eliza Corporation

Background

Eliza Corporation was founded in 1984 to further the R&D efforts of the speech and pattern recognition group at the California Institute of Technology. Today, Eliza's expertise is founded in large, full-scale deployments involving tens of millions of interactions across a wide range of healthcare populations, each with its own needs and requirements. Simply put, Eliza makes millions of telephone calls each month on behalf of the largest healthcare providers in the country.

*Eliza is one of Avidity's most affiliated clients. We've been there since the first chassis based switch was installed and we continue to support them as they grow by leaps and bounds.

The Challenge

Eliza had realized tremendous growth in business, employees and mission critical applications over its many years in service. The network infrastructure in place did not provide the security, reliability or scalability needed to support the enormous amounts of transactional data which was now being processed each day. The need for a more scalable and robust network for which the company could continue to leverage as their business expanded was apparent. Eliza was also in need of a Unified Communications solution which would support their growing employee base including its remote teleworkers located throughout the country and over seas.

The Solution

From day one, Avidity worked hand-and-hand with Eliza's IT staff to gain a solid understanding of their business processes and corresponding IT support issues. This relationship allowed Avidity to design and implement a network infrastructure that was not only based on industry best practices but also offered unique solutions addressed at meeting the specific requirements of their business.

The new network infrastructure was designed for performance, reliability and security - including access, distribution and core layers with fault-tolerant network and switching paths, redundant hardware modules, chassis', and power. The network was segmented and secured using a variety of Cisco ASA appliances, which provided granular access control to the IT department. Security was of utmost concern to Eliza as they must comply with HIPPA's stringent regulations concerning personal health care information. A Cisco Call Manager and Unity Express solution was installed for the companies telephony needs. The scalable telephony infrastructure allowed remote teleworkrers throughout the country to stay in direct contact with headquarters and other employees. Cisco Meetingplace express was installed for Eliza's web-conferencing needs, which also included VT Advantage endpoints for video capability.

Avidity continues to work with Eliza on several upcoming initiatives including a Network Admission Control (NAC) solution, highly available load balancing utilizing integrated 6500 SLB modules, SSL Extranet portals and much more. A brief overview of the equipment used for this ongoing solution includes:

  • 16 x 6500 series Catalyst chassis running in native mode (Sup2/Sup32/Sup720)
  • 8 x ASA 550x Appliances with SSM modules
  • 2 x 7200 Cisco Routers, 2x 3845 Cisco Routers and 2 x 2800 Routers, 50+ 800 series routers
  • Meetingplace Express version 2.0
  • Cisco Call Manager Express version 4.1
  • Cisco Unity Express
  • Multiple VT Advantage endpoints and Polycom units
  • A variety of 7970, 7960, 7912, and 7920 VoIP phones
  • IDS/IPS provided by integrated network modules and built-in signatures

The Result

Avidity and Eliza partnered together to transform the network into a truly robust and efficient operating environment for its employees, business partners, and clients. The new infrastructure is built for stability and security - it offers dynamic services such as voice and video with integrated Quality of Service QoS to ensure mission critical applications and services are not delayed by traffic loads during peak processing times. The Unified Communications solution provides Eliza with seamless and efficient interaction between its employees and customers no matter where they are located throughout the country. The unified service delivery model has proven to be extremely successful and continues to expand and adapt as their business demands.

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