Objectworld Communications Corp. has won a contract to replace the existing telephony system in the Pembina Trails school division.

Pembina Trails, a school division of 14,000 students in Winnipeg, has selected the Objectworld's UC Server to deliver several communications services and applications to 1,800 people in 34 separate locations across the division.

"We wanted a cost-effective solution and to write a business case that showed both short-

and long-term savings coupled with extensive functionality gains, and, of course, ease of use was a must," said Don Reece, the school division's director of information technology. "UC Server allowed us to leverage existing Dell hardware and Microsoft Active Directory software to not only accommodate existing phone and messaging needs, but to encourage the creation of a unified messaging vision for the future."

Currently, the buildings at Pembina Trails are linked by 47 kilometres of dark fibre network infrastructure, which run at one gigabit per second through switches supplied by a partnership with Dell. The division said its existing phone systems were "unable to accommodate the school division's communications goals."

"The challenges and opportunities in terms of communications that face today's

educational institutions are tremendous," said Steve Grassie, Objectworld's vice-president of business development and marketing. "Helping Pembina Trails simplify the

administrative requirements using Microsoft Active Directory and helping

them cut their communications costs using VoIP is what this install is

really about for us."