On-shore MapleWorks Technology develops network communication products that help Cedar Point Communications get to market faster with its commercial service features

By outsourcing a portion of its software development and employing MapleWorks networking and network communications product expertise, Cedar Point penetrates larger commercial markets

Cedar Point Communications knows firsthand what it means to be always on the line with no hang-ups about consistent, high performance. As a worldwide leader in integrated Voice over IP (VoIP) switching technologies for service providers and enterprise network communications operators, Derry, NH-based Cedar Point’s SAFARI C_ Multimedia Switching platform delivers “five nines” availability ensuring delivery of uninterrupted telephony services to its customers.

The necessity for no-nonsense quality assurance and timely service delivery extends to Cedar Point’s choice of outsourcing partner. That choice was Canada’s MapleWorks Technology Inc., headquartered in the National Capital Region just across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Quebec. An onshore software development outsourcing company, MapleWorks has proven experience with network management projects and mission-critical network communications products. The company is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 140% over the last three years.

John O’Hara, VP Engineering, Cedar Point Communications, outsourced specific features for the phase two roll-out of his company’s commercial service features to MapleWorks. “We chose MapleWorks for its strong embedded background in the network communications industry and for its geographic position,” says O’Hara. “Many qualified engineers, now working with MapleWorks, have decades of networking and software development experience drawn from the strong network communications industry in the Ottawa region.”

“MapleWorks engineers understand embedded software design and best practices for fault tolerant software system development,” he adds. “Their development team helped Cedar Point design and deliver carrier-class features.”
 
Working with MapleWorks also allows Cedar Point, a private company of about 200 employees, to re-deploy internal resources on other development areas. The MapleWorks team is skilled, reliable and employs the latest technologies in software development. “Outsourcing is the most cost-effective option for the development of certain VoIP features,” according to O’Hara.

MapleWorks develops new technologies in partnership with its clients for next-generation networks. Cedar Point used to be solely involved with delivering residential VoIP services but the company made the switch – now over a year ago – to provide commercial services to customers who want IP centric capabilities such as call pick-up groups, call transfer groups, hunt groups, and account codes. Says O’Hara, “The real value of Cedar Point’s joint development effort with MapleWorks is the resultant product that allowed us to augment our core business service offering. MapleWorks helped us to accelerate that process.”

Cedar Point’s primary product, the SAFARI C_ Multimedia Switching System, supports legacy circuit, NCS and SIP-based voice services, as well as a migration path to IMS.

Cedar Point, working with it’s customers, identified the key specifications for delivering commercial service features. Once Cedar Point’s team identified the most important commercial service features, MapleWorks was called in to participate. MapleWorks engineers developed new commercial service features such as preferential hunting, account codes and non-sequential numbers support for customer service groups on schedule and within budget.  

Cedar Point’s SAFARI C_ Multimedia Switching System supports up to 250,000 lines of capacity in less than a cubic yard of space and is deployed by customers that include Cable Operators, Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) and Wireless Operators.

Cedar Point’s in-house QA organization reviews software and evaluates code and documentation under its rigorous quality evaluation system. John O’Hara explains, “As further proof of its high-quality work, MapleWorks features required only reasonable – never excessive – amounts of review and re-mediation. MapleWorks product is extremely solid in terms of quality – the features they developed for us worked as defined, scaled well and were well-documented. Their engineers delivered high-performance, integrated work on-schedule.”

By choosing Canadian-based MapleWorks as an on-shore outsourcing partner for software development, Cedar Point saves time and money.  Without any cultural or communication barriers and because of their close geographic proximity, the two companies have no obstacles to meeting face to face.

MapleWorks web site (www.mapleworks.com) details how the company develops commercialized products at 35-50% less than U.S.-based resources. MapleWorks cost savings are compounded by the following advantages:

• Accelerated time-to-market using its proprietary design methodology, MapleWorks OnTrack™
• Skilled, experienced developers averaging more than ten years each of experience designing network communications software solutions
• Reduced operational costs from on-shore outsourcing efficiencies such as faster software delivery, less development costs and ease of access to MapleWorks experts and development team

MapleWorks Technology undertakes projects in network security, integrated access devices, call control, call processing, network protocol testing and network management applications. MapleWorks is the smart choice for on-shore software.

Cedar Point Communications’ relationship with MapleWorks will continue well into the future. John O’Hara is unequivocal when he says, “Our relationship with MapleWorks is flourishing and has expanded over time. MapleWorks was our first outsourcing partner and will continue as one of our most successful relationships.”