JERSEY CITY, New Jersey, November 18 /PRNewswire/ -- IPC Systems, the leading provider of indispensable trading communications solutions to the world's leading financial services firms, today announced a shared IP access strategy in conjunction with strategic upgrades to its network and trading solutions. The strategic upgrades enable customers to consolidate voice and data communications required for electronic trading onto a single, managed and secure network infrastructure that can be directly integrated with IPC's industry-leading trading systems platform. IPC's global network, spanning over 3,600 On-Net sites, delivers IP -based Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) and high-speed data via its Electronic Connectivity Service (ECS) which serves as the foundation for the combined access strategy.

Consolidation of voice and data services will reduce infrastructure costs, increase resiliency and simplify business continuity planning (BCP). The approach of leveraging a fully managed state-of-the-art converged IP network provides inherent advantages such as carbon footprint reduction, as well as operational and infrastructure efficiencies. Flexible thin-building and virtualized architecture techniques that capitalize on SIP technology streamline information delivery and allow for diverse connections to and from multiple locations for automatic and seamless communications protection.

As a financial services firm operating in a global environment, our business requires continuous and reliable worldwide communications, and having the latest technology to support that is key, commented Shafqat Ali, Gilder Gagnon Howe Co. Implementing IPC's EVS service has complemented our BCP very well, and has proven to be an extremely effective approach, from both a business facilitation and cost perspective.

The EVS upgrade leverages private line delivery via IP using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) - a signaling protocol that has become the industry standard for advanced Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) session control and multi-media capabilities. Using SIP, IPC's EVS service provides connections directly to the client's IPC Alliance platform in IP format, enabling customers to integrate data, voice and other future multi-media applications through a single, high bandwidth, highly-reliable connection.

With the strategic upgrade of EVS and the Alliance platform, we are bringing together the advanced automatic resiliency features of EVS directly to our trading turret system, said Jonathan Morton, vice president, Global Product Management, IPC Systems. Owning the network and the trading platform allows us to create a unique solution for our customers, providing them with the opportunity to dramatically increase productivity and collaboration and continue trading securely and efficiently using an end-to-end IP approach.

About IPC

IPC is a leading provider of indispensable financial trading communications solutions to the world's leading financial services firms and global enterprises. With 35 years of expertise and innovation, IPC provides its customers with global systems and solutions, as well as a suite of products and enhanced services that includes advanced Voice-over-IP technology and integrated network and 24x7x365 management services in more than 60 countries. Based in Jersey City, N.J., IPC has approximately 900 employees throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. For more information, visit www.ipc.com.

Media Contacts Cliff Fox Matt Pennachio IPC Systems, Inc. Ruder Finn for IPC +1-201-253-2291 +1-212-715-1613 cliff.fox@ipc.com pennacchiom@ruderfinn.com

SOURCE: IPC Systems

CONTACT: Cliff Fox, IPC Systems, Inc., +1-201-253-2291, cliff.fox@ipc.com,or Matt Pennachio, Ruder Finn for IPC, +1-212-715-1613,pennacchiom@ruderfinn.com