Black & Veatch Transformed Communications, Enhancing Global Collaboration and Productivity - Case Study

Black & Veatch is a global leader in the consulting, engineering, construction and operation of what the world needs now and in the future in the crucial areas of energy, water and telecommunications. It provides up-to-the-minute services in the fast-changing federal and environmental markets. Founded in 1915, the employee-owned, $2.7 billion company operates out of over 110 offices worldwide and has completed projects in more than 100 countries.

Managing professionals distributed across more than 100 countries on six continents made timely, effective communication not only important, but business critical.

"We had an immediate need to modernize an aging telephone Private Branch Exchange (PBX) and voicemail system at our headquarters," said Brad Vaughan, Senior VP and CIO at Black & Veatch.

"Our system was 12 years old. It had failed several times before and parts were becoming unavailable," explained Vaughan. "We had to make a decision to replace it with something similar, or take this opportunity to modernize Black & Veatch with new feature-rich technology."

In addition to updating voice capabilities, Black & Veatch wanted to revolutionize collaboration between its business partners, clients and highly mobile workforce. It turned to long-time technology outsourcing partner, HP. Since 2006, HP has managed, developed and supported the company’s global IT infrastructure — including desktops, servers, networks and applications.

Black & Veatch considered various communications solutions — from a new PBX system to a unified communications solution. It evaluated the costs and ROI of removing PBX systems, telephony line consolidation, phone system move/add changes and other cost-saving opportunities such as less cabling.