Supplier: Voicenet Solutions http://www.voicenet-
Reseller: ADS Inbay – Voicenet Solutions Centre of Excellence http://www.adsinbay.com/
Product: FMC and Hosted VoIP Case Study
EC1 Connect to Fixed Mobile Convergence
The Business Background
EC1 New Deal for Communities (NDC) is one of thirty-nine NDC partnerships across England that has received government funding over a ten-year period to kick-start the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods.
EC1 NDC was awarded £52.9m for the period from 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2011. The NDC covers an area of around 4,800 households in the southern-most part of the London Borough of Islington, near the border with the City of London
The Challenge
Their previous phone system was with them when they moved into their old offices in 2001 and were basically “phones on desks” with set numbers and a system that made it difficult to transfer calls and most importantly did not easily allow for number porting and scalability.
Due to the nature of EC1 NDC’s work they wanted to be able to operate a policy of hot-desking, where employees, can in theory, change desks every day seamlessly while keeping a constant extension number wherever they sit. They have a very fluid, busy office, which is often open seven days a week. There are project-based staff, home-workers, full-time and temporary staff. Much work is done on site and many staff would spend a fair amount of time on their mobiles and would regularly have to be called using separate numbers.
EC1 NDC needed a phone solution that would fit in with their changeable working structure, be both scalable and highly flexible as well as incorporating a mobile solution. The system also needed to work within a strict budget and be easily maintained.
The Solution
When moving to new premises a fact-finding mission was set upon to find the most appropriate providers.
As with most businesses EC1 NDC do not have a dedicated telecom specialist and therefore relied on the providers to give all the information in an understandable, non-jargon way.
After talking to a few well known telecom providers, ADS Inbay, a Voicenet Solutions Centre of Excellence, was then contacted and impressed EC1 NDC enough with the hosted VoIP offering to be awarded the account: They offered EC1 NDC the following:
• A full demonstration highlighting beneficial features and products that were pertinent to the needs
• Full support throughout the implementation period and beyond, for office, mobile and home workers
• A reliable FMC solution – VNi Mobile
• Users the ability to log in to their laptop and nearest phone, which would then be ready to go for that person’s extension, thus allowing hot-desking.
• Achievable cost savings for the first quarter and then ongoing for the next 12 month
• A hosted VoIP solution which was maintained remotely
• Power over Ethernet solution to cut down electricity usage
• A competitively priced solution
The FMC Solution
ADS Inbay gave a full demonstration of VNi Mobile to the team. This Fixed Mobile Convergence solution enables users to make and receive business calls on their mobile, in any WiFi area, over their business’s VoIP network.
VNi Mobile works by using VoIP compatible GSM Nokia E61 and E65 via WiFi access points over the Voicenet Solutions hosted VoIP network. Calls will be guaranteed within the workspace as each site has built-in QoS facilities. The dual Nokia handset can be used instead of the desk phone and every handset will offer the PPM features available on the Voicenet Solutions platform such as click to call, forward transfer etc.
Whether they are at home, work or onsite, they only need one phone, and one number. If colleagues need to contact them or transfer a call they just dial the extension number. When outside a WiFi network the call gets transferred automatically to their mobile network, this is via VoIP, thus cutting even more costs.
The Outcome
With the hosted solution, WiFi routers, VoIP over WiFi mobile handsets, Cisco IP phones and softphones on laptops, has enabled EC1 NDC to work the way they want to more easily. The old system was inhibitive and had to be worked around. This new solution gives greater freedom and flexibility and means employees can work at any desk in the office, at home or on site and still be contactable on their single office number.
EC1 NDC Quote
“The integrated system means our mobile users can make wifi calls from both the home and office enabling us to work at maximum capacity at either location.”
Danielle Roberts, Office Manager
“Not only do we expect substantial savings but we have an office phone system that gives us greater flexibility, working the way we want.”
Danielle Roberts, Office Manager
http://www.yourec1.com/
