LISCO opened its new data center this month. A climate-contolled clean room houses the new telephone switch, routers, servers, and other equipment in a competely protected environment. This state-of-the-art data center will insure that your vital data always continues to flow uninterrupted.

Backup battery power is available in case of a short-term power outage. For longer outages, a standby generator will keep the system working until the power comes back on.

The data center is located adjacent to the phone company's central office so that information can flow easily between the two facilities.

This new data center is an example of the way that LISCO is always upgrading its technical infrastructure to bring faster, more reliable service to its customers.

LISCO has just completed laying a five-mile fiber optic line for Telegroup, the Fairfield-based company that specializes in global long distance telecommunications services.

LISCO contracted with Telegroup to run optical fiber from Telegroup’s facility south of Highway 34 in Fairfield’s Industrial Park, to Telegroup North, the company’s newer building on Highway 1 north of town. Telegroup will use the line to link the services that operate in the two different buildings.

LISCO has been laying its own fiber optic lines for some time, and the company is now ready to contract with other companies in southeast Iowa who need either aerial or underground fiber optic lines.

"We have the fusion splicing capability, a boom truck, and an experienced crew," says Eric Michener, an engineer at LISCO.

For more information about LISCO’s fiber optic-laying capability, contact David Magill at LISCO, 641-472-5400, extension 7104.

LISCO has recently become a licensed reseller for the Mitel Corporation, a leading worldwide supplier of voice communications technologies.

Mitel, with annual revenues of more than $1.3 billion, has over 25 years’ experience providing communications systems to industries in such diverse areas as finance, education, health care, manufacturing and lodging.

"Whether your business has 15 employees or 2,000, you can benefit from a state-of-the-art telephone system," says Gary Hansell, an engineer at LISCO who is working with businesses in Iowa that need their phone systems to be capable of the technological demands of the twenty-first century.

Mitel provides a wide range of phone systems, from economical, entry-level, multi-line, digital display telephone systems to more robust systems that include such features as voice mail, remote access, wireless IP, voice recognition, an interactive call center, and networking between remote facilities.

"Wireless IP," says Hansell, "can be perfect for help desk personnel, or any other type of related operation. The called employees can easily walk to different locations in a building while maintaining their phone connection, without the restraints of being connected to the traditional wireline networks."

Mitel’s networking systems allow companies that have multiple office sites, even in different parts of the world, to use one integrated phone system.

And with one of Mitel’s remote access solutions, employees who, for example, work at home, can be seamlessly integrated into the company’s phone system. When someone calls the company phone number to reach the worker, the caller can easily reach the home worker, but won’t know that the worker is not at the company’s main office.

"We’re happy to join forces with Mitel," says Hansell, "and pleased that they’ve allowed us to be a platinum elite VAR. Only about 10% of their resellers are granted that status."

For more information about Mitel phone systems, contact Jerry Yellin at LISCO, 641 472-5400.