Refuge is given a full communications overhaul

Background

Refuge is a national charity for women and children experiencing domestic violence. Since it was established in 1971 Refuge has grown to become the largest provider of emergency accommodation and emotional and practical support in the UK.

With headquarters in central London Refuge run a 24 hour helpline Refuge as well as a network of safe houses from the South Coast to the North East, which provide emergency accommodation for women and children when they are most in need.

Challenge

As with any charity, Refuge needs to scrutinise every cost but also requires the technology that helps any business deliver higher levels of efficiency and enable greater cost effectiveness.

Refuge’s Head of Technology was spending a lot of his time dealing with multiple telecom suppliers, billing and maintenance issues and was genuinely unconvinced that his current providers were offering the best possible deals available.

Solution

Voicenet Solutions’ Centre of Excellence IP Solutions approached Refuge with the view to analyse the market to find the best possible tariffs, deal with current providers, give them independent advice and implement the best technology solutions available for both mobile and landline solutions.

Landlines

Refuge has over 150 phone lines servicing their headquarters, external offices and Refuge Centres. However, in the eyes of their telecom provider these lines were viewed as 150 separate businesses, with 150 individual bills but none of the scales of economies that should be associated with an account of that size.

IP Solutions used their expertise in the market to find the most cost effective solution from an alternative provider. All the lines were brought onto one account and one phone bill, resulting in huge cuts in administrative work and a financial saving of over 30%.

Hosted VoIP

Furthermore on moving to new offices, it was recommended Refuge implement a Voicenet Solutions hosted VoIP solution for landline calls. Refuge opted for VNcomplete the all-in-one hosted package with 7911 Cisco phones, which is offered with no upfront capital costs and paid for on a monthly fee with additional free on-network calls.

All that was needed in the Manchester and London offices to install the hosted VoIP solution to over 60 employees was two Cisco routers, which were implemented within in a day. Together with the IP Phones, which were part of the VNcomplete package and a Receptionist Console, which enables easy distribution of calls to any phone, Refuge’s national headquarters and home workers now had a fully functioning single telecommunications network.

As well as all the benefits of a hosted solution including ease of call transfer, soft phones for home working and the ability to dial-in and pick up voice mail, Refuge have indicated that they have made substantial monthly savings as well as whole new phone system.

Benefits

With 30% reductions in telecommunications costs Refuge have certainly benefited financially. However the combined service from IP Solutions and Voicenet Solutions is more than just savings, they have taken control of the administrative issues involved with dealing with telecom providers and the organisation of maintenance issues, thus saving the Charity much needed time and resources.

“All the admin and hassle of dealing with multiple suppliers and bills has now gone. It’s like outsourcing it without actually paying for it. I now have one company to phone if there are any issues. We trust Voicenet Solutions and IP Solutions to continue to deliver knowledge and give us the most cost-effective solutions for years to come.”

Ben McGrath Director of Finance and Technology, Refuge

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