Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana (RMHC-CNI) proudly announced that the world’s largest Ronald McDonald House has come up in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood, in close proximity of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's of Chicago hospital.

Born with the mission of improving the health, wellbeing and education of children, RMHC-CNI delivers their services through four core programs. One of them is to provide a “home away from home” to keep families close while their children are being treated at a nearby hospital.

In an effort to enhance the care and support for the families of sick children, as part of its "families first" commitment, RMHC-CNI implemented Avaya (News - Alert) IP Office – a unified communications solution – into the new Ronald McDonald House near Lurie Children's.

Avaya IP Office is a state-of-the-art communications solution that ensures families and House staff can easily stay in touch within the House and with local hospitals. Coming with advanced mobility applications, the solution will allow staff members to remain consistently accessible to co-workers and House guests through a single number, even when they are working away from the new House.

The Avaya IP Office application turns a staff member's cell phone into a full-featured office phone so that House staff members can deliver business-level communications.

The same feature can be used by the families so they won't miss important calls when away from their bedrooms.

Carousel Industries, a Platinum-certified Avaya Connect Channel Partner, executed the installation, while Westcon Group (News - Alert), Inc. has been contracted for fulfillment support delivery, Avaya clarified in a news release.

Under the contract, Carousel will deliver ongoing maintenance and support, including site visits and system evaluations, as well as assisting RMHC-CNI with on-site programming and “adds, moves and changes.”

“We want to make it easy for each of our families to focus on the health of their child, and having an Avaya IP Office communications system helps us deliver on that mission,” said VP of RMHC-CNI Mary Agnes Laguatan. “Our guests can stay connected with the important people in their lives and readily reach any of our staff members during a time of need. Avaya IP Office allows our staff members and volunteers to be more accessible and have the right tools to collaborate with each other, ultimately making our services more efficient. This builds new territory for us in state-of-the-art communications as we continue to move forward as an organization.”

A few months ago, Avaya announced that Lian Life Insurance Co, Ltd, of Jiangsu Province selected Avaya IP Office services to enhance collaboration and save in communications costs.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

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