Carousel Industries and Vantage Healthcare Network® Embark on $3 Million, Multi-Site Integration Using Avaya Aura® Unified Communications

EXETER, R.I., Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Carousel Industries, a leader in data networking and converged communications, announced that it has signed an agreement with Meadville, PA- based Vantage Healthcare Network® to install a multiple-site communications and messaging solution centered on the Avaya Aura unified communications architecture. The $3 million implementation begins with Saint Vincent Health System in Erie, PA, and is expected to be completed by April 2011.

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Saint Vincent Health System, the largest hospital of the 12 Vantage Healthcare Network® owner members, will serve as the communications hub for the network of facilities.  The network includes over 1,700 participating physicians throughout western Pennsylvania. The new system will enable seamless communications within and among participating hospitals as well as network integration across the Pennsylvania Health Information Exchange, which is a secure network for sharing electronic health information throughout the state.

"Carousel Industries has worked closely with Vantage Health Group Telecommunications (HGT) on an integrated plan allowing the broad network of Vantage hospitals to gain greater value in their day-to-day communications, by extending advanced network applications and core services across the entire group," commented Robert Acerra, regional sales director of Carousel Industries. "This solution, which will be implemented over the next several months, will help provide hospital staff, as well as patients and their families, with greater accessibility to communications tools and information that support health care delivery, in addition to increased network uptime and state-of-the-art call center capabilities for each of the 12 member hospitals."

"Vantage's communications systems are mission critical," Acerra added. "We are pleased to be able to deliver a comprehensive, cost-effective solution that leverages the latest advances in unified communications technology."

By working with Carousel's Capital Finance Group, Vantage financed the solution through monthly payments that are nearly equivalent to the maintenance costs they were paying for their outdated legacy system.

"We are pleased to be leveraging the expertise of Carousel in this enormously important network integration," commented Jay Long, senior vice president, HGT. "As mobile devices continue to proliferate the health care system, it is very important for our physicians to have the ability to communicate in real time, and through a single contact. The solution Carousel has proposed makes financial sense and gives us everything we're looking for -- seamless communications within and among our facilities."

"It will also give us an increased ability to securely share medical records within the Health Information Exchange, which will help provide doctors with an increased ability to diagnose patient issues in real-time," Long added.

The network integration, which is projected to be complete by April 2011, will include the following products and solutions from the Avaya portfolio:

• Avaya Aura® Session Manager, which enables centralized dial plans and user profiles that can be extended throughout the network, along with multi-vendor integration, SIP-based session management, enhanced scalability and security.
• Avaya Aura Communication Manager, which provides more than 700 advanced communications features for productivity and mobility, and industry-leading reliability and scalability.
• Avaya Modular Messaging, which enables effective, unified messaging across the enterprise.
• Avaya Call Center Elite, which maximizes call center efficiency.
• Avaya IP, digital and analog phones across eight locations.

"Every second counts in the care coordination process, and with Avaya Aura, Vantage Healthcare Network is taking a major step to improve collaboration by effectively connecting care providers and the information they need to make informed decisions," said Sanjeev Gupta, general manager, Healthcare Solutions for Avaya. "Avaya Aura will provide a highly reliable, scalable foundation on which Vantage and its members can build applications that improve care coordination and streamline processes for its staff and community."

About Carousel

Carousel Industries designs, delivers and supports technology solutions that become the foundation of our clients' businesses.  This includes unified communications, virtualization, Voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing and collaboration and data infrastructure solutions.  Since Carousel was founded in 1992 we've grown an average of 30% - 50% per year with estimated 2010 revenues of over $200 million.  Today we have over 5,000 customers, including 35 of the Fortune 100.  Carousel has been recognized by both VAR and CRN Magazines as one of the top technology integrators in the US and we've been listed in the Inc. 500 five times.

Carousel is headquartered in Exeter, RI with over 800 employees working from offices in 17 locations across the US, including over 250 service technicians deployed across the country.   For more information visit www.carouselindustries.com.

SOURCE Carousel Industries