Boeing's Jumbo Phone-System Overhaul

<<<... For example, executive assistants couldn't see from their own phones the incoming Caller ID of someone dialing up their boss, to help decide whether to interrupt a call in progress. (Cisco has since added the capability to certain models.) "We found the most important folks you have to impress are the receptionists and executive secretaries," Naughton says. "If they don't like it, their bosses won't like it."

Cisco also only recently added the ability to encrypt sensitive phone conversations, a major requirement for Boeing as a large government contractor. Cisco's CallManager 4.1, officially released in March 2005, provides two-way encrypted conversations and meets Department of Defense telephony specifications.

Naughton and his team are testing those features. For now, he says, "We tell folks, 'Do not have [sensitive] conversations over the telephone—period.'

" Boeing also found that Cisco didn't have a way to display location information for 911 callers, which was critical for its Puget Sound facilities near Seattle where Boeing security personnel are "first responders" for emergencies.For those locations, the company chose a system from Xtend Communications that integrated more easily with the existing 911 infrastructure, according to Naughton. more>>>