Burns & McDonnell Selects AT&T Network Services

Kansas City, Missouri.-AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) has announced a three-year networking services contract with Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company Inc., a multidisciplinary engineering, architecture, construction, environmental and consulting services firm. The agreement, which renews and expands a long-standing relationship between the two companies, calls for AT&T to serve as the primary network and data services provider to Burns & McDonnell.

Burns & McDonnell is ranked in the top 10 percent of U.S. engineering design firms by Engineering News-Record magazine. The firm’s work is increasingly taking place on a global scale, so there are bigger demands on its networking infrastructure. AT&T will upgrade services at Burns & McDonnell from frame relay to fully managed Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)-based Virtual Private Network (VPN) services. AT&T’s solution prioritizes business-critical data that travels over the network and provides simultaneous access and improved connectivity for Burns & McDonnell headquarters in Kansas City, as well as its 17 regional offices across the United States.

Consolidating and standardizing networking services at Burns & McDonnell onto a unified and scalable MPLS platform enables the company to achieve faster data speeds, improved efficiencies and increased collaboration. AT&T’s highly reliable VPN services also make it possible for Burns & McDonnell’s remote workforce to access corporate applications from wherever they are located.

“Our work to plan, design, permit, construct and manage facilities is increasingly proceeding internationally, which prompted us to adopt a philosophy that encourages anywhere, anytime computing.” said Kris Paper, principal and director of Information Technology for Burns & McDonnell. “AT&T’s services upgrade will play a major role in keeping everyone connected all over the world.”

With AT&T Network-Based Internet Protocol (IP) VPN Remote Access service, remote workers or mobile users enjoy the same level of connectivity as individuals who work in branch offices. The service delivers Burns & McDonnell any-to-any communications with remote and local employees, customers and suppliers.

The agreement also includes deployment of an Optical Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network (OPT-E-MAN®) service to connect the Kansas City headquarters with the company’s data center.

The OPT-E-MAN solution is a switched Ethernet service that connects local area networks (LANs) within the same metropolitan area. Through the OPT-E-MAN solution, Burns & McDonnell will be able to use switched Metro Ethernet technology to link facilities situated throughout the Kansas City area through a single managed network solution. This ensures virtually uninterrupted data transport from point to point, point to multipoint, or multipoint to multipoint.

In addition to the VPN solution, AT&T will also provide private line services, local and long distance voice services and AT&T Business Internet Services, which deliver reliable Internet dial access in more than 50 countries.