When one thinks of the Red Sox, one typically does not think of unified communications platforms and virtualization. And yet the Red Sox are a business organization with a contact center and specialized communications and videoconferencing needs. Carousel Industries has been working with the team since 2003 and recently took on the challenge of upgrading their unified communications system.

According to Steve Conley, director of IT for the Red Sox, the organization had an antiquated Centrex/Hybrid phone system running in their call center in 2003. As Conley put it, the phone system "blew up" just a few weeks before the baseball season started. That is when Carousel, a solutions provider that designs, delivers and supports technology solutions, stepped in. Carousel offers a number of solutions including unified communications, virtualization, VoIP, visual communications and collaboration and data infrastructure solutions.

Carousel Industries’ solution to the phone system blow up was to bring in a loaner Definity system for the 2003 season, which helped the team address immediate short-term issues. This also bought them some time to develop a strategy that would enable the Red Sox to address their long-term technology priorities and goals, while establishing a strong technology backbone that would meet their virtualization needs.

“Even though people look at the Red Sox as a New England institution and a nationally recognized brand, we are actually a small company with only 160 full-time employees,” said Conley. “So when Carousel helped implement our new Avaya (News - Alert) system, we worked closely with them and relied on their expertise to make sure it enabled us to do things we had never been able to do before.”

Carousel identified a number of prorates and objectives in establishing a new technology solution for the Red Sox. They wanted to ensure a ticketing contact center system would be integrated with the rest of the organization, and also make the ticketing system fair in order to allow equal access to tickets for all. The virtualization provider also sought to eliminate busy signals when fans call in, and define all infrastructure requirements. These included bandwidth, scalability of the network for future growth and physical cabling needs in the team's enormous 100-year-old steel and concrete facility that houses its Fenway Park offices.

“Carousel helped put together the strategy and really brought expertise to the table that allowed us to move forward with confidence,” Conley added. The company also worked closely with the Red Sox to keep their technology current. This included items like “upgrading to VoIP for the organization and the contact center which meant upgrading our network backbone to support that initiative. The Carousel relationship has been great, because they have had to be flexible and creative in helping us solve problems and responsive in implementing solutions.”

The Red Sox continue to seek ways to improve their unified communications and virtualization capabilities, and video plays a major role today. According to Conley, the Red Sox medical team, trainers and coaches use Apple's (News - Alert) Facetime video calls to collaborate and discuss injuries, assess rehabilitation needs and review player mechanics. However this technology has limitations and the Red Sox are now seeking to put a video solution in place that will enable them to securely collaborate using video, with multiple participants in various locations.

To meet this need, Carousel Industries is outfitting the parks with video conferencing infrastructure and a system that will connect all parks and allow for the sharing of MRI information, X-rays and other medical data. It will also speed up the decision making process and take away the need for unnecessary travel. The company is also working to unify the entire organization through enhanced virtualization and unified communications capabilities.

“They have voicemail and email coming together on one inbox, and now with the explosion of smartphones, we are working to implement Avaya’s ONE-X mobile solution," Bob Harkins, vice president of Carousel commented. "This will enable four-digit calling on the network, so you can call someone’s extension and know you’ll reach your contact regardless of the device they are on or their location.”

“We appreciate the long-term relationships we build with our clients, and the Red Sox are a great example of that,” Harkins said. “Initially, we were brought in during a crisis. Today, we work closely with Steve and his team to make the most effective decisions for the Red Sox organization regardless of the product or technology. Our engineers understand Steve’s business objectives and we do our best to craft recommendations to achieve those goals. The Red Sox will challenge our team to do better, short and long term. It has proven to be a great partnership over the years, one I’d like to emulate with all of our clients, and we look forward to the next challenge.”

"The payoff for this will really come when the season starts and people are everywhere," Conley concluded. "Regardless of whether they are at spring training, scouting, or traveling for games, they can connect with colleagues like they are sitting at their desk.”