Under a new three-year agreement, Verizon Business' small- to medium-sized business (SMB) solutions team is providing the Internet protocol (IP) foundation for voice-over-IP (VoIP) communications and Web-based video meetings.

With these new capabilities, the JDRF can effectively and efficiently disseminate information announcing research advancements, industry partnerships, advocacy campaigns, and the organization's national fundraising activities, including the Walk to Cure Diabetes program.

“Communications, whether it's with our chapters across America or to our research partners worldwide, are critical to our continued success,” said James Szmak, vice president and chief information officer of JDRF. “Verizon provides us a robust and cost-effective solution to communicate with voice, video and data instantly, anywhere across our extensive network. By taking the time to understand and respond to our very specific requirements, Verizon Business is helping us take our organization to the next level of efficiency and performance.”

The JDRF is leveraging Verizon Business' award-winning IP Trunking service with Burstable Enterprise Shared Trunks (BEST) over Verizon Private IP, a global multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) virtual private network service. The BEST capability of IP Trunking allows JDRF to use idle IP trunk capacity in one location to accommodate an increase in traffic at another location. This reduces the total number of voice communications trunks required to link JDRF's more than 530 employees at 80 offices. In addition, JDRF employees will be able to simply dial four digits to reach each other for VoIP or video calls, speeding communications and collaboration.

The JDRF is also working with Cisco® to employ the Cisco WebEx™ solution for Web-based meetings with face-to-face video. All JDRF employees will have a webcam for on-demand video calls and collaboration sessions. Verizon's Private IP network supports the quality and classes of service and bandwidth-on-demand capabilities to support intermittent video transmissions.

In addition, the JDRF will employ Verizon Secure Gateway service to enable secure Internet connectivity to the Verizon Private IP network. At its smallest chapters with five employees or less, the JDRF will use Internet DSL services for reliable, high-bandwidth communications, through the Secure Gateway for added protection.

“We're providing the JDRF with communications and collaboration tools that will help them combat this devastating disease,” said James Geary, vice president of SMB sales for Verizon Business. “Verizon Business is a pioneer developing and delivering advanced IP technology for businesses, and the JDRF is a terrific example of how we are helping mid-sized organizations achieve big-business transformations enabled by IP and advanced collaboration tools.”