Jisc upgrades it business phone system to hosted VoIP

Wednesday, 14 November 2007 00:00

JISC, ecducation and research organisation makes substantial savings on its business call with a hosted VoIP solution from Voicenet Solutions

Case Study

VoIP Service Provider: Voicenet Solutions

Customer: JISC

The Business Background

JISC is an organisation, which was set-up to support higher and further education and research by promoting innovation in new technologies. They do this by managing licences for online resources on behalf of further and higher education and research councils.

JISC manages research and development programmes in the use of ICT in teaching. It also funds initiatives and services to provide expertise, independent advice, guidance and resources to the UK FE and HE education sectors to promote the effective and innovative use of ICT.

Based in Bristol, London and Nottingham, as well as various other locations around the country, JISC is committed to offering superior value to its members by providing affordable and highly relevant online content.

When JISC decided to relocate its London offices to a new building it decided it was the perfect time to implement a new telephone system. This communications solution had to accommodate 52 members of staff who needed to be connected to the network whilst at home as well as travelling internationally.

The Challenge

JISC wanted a reliable, flexible and scalable business telephone system that would allow them to deploy a modern, feature rich telephony solution throughout their new offices in London to connect staff both in the office and for them to use seamlessly whilst away from their desks.

It was felt that the traditional option of a PBX was cost prohibitive and systems with hardware costs of as much as £50,000 were deemed far too expensive. Hosted VoIP became the preferred option not just for its cost effectiveness and leading technology but for its remote servicing and ongoing support.

JISC decided to send out the service for tender. They selected four VoIP service providers, with a mixture of offerings, based on a consultant’s advice, to respond.

What JISC wanted to see from the VoIP providers was a fully operational product that was not only cost effective but was at the forefront of modern telephony technology and offered features that would enhance employee connectivity. Furthermore JISC stipulated that the product be ready to go straight away, it should have full QoS, and that the level of servicing and support was crucial.

The Solution

Voicenet Solutions were awarded the tender for a number of reasons. Firstly it was Voicenet Solutions ability to demonstrate a fully working solution using the current infrastructure within 10 minutes of entering the office. Also Voicenet Solutions were more than willing to arrange further meetings to demonstrate the system with core members of the JISC team, talking them through all available features and how they could help with their communications.

Secondly these demonstrations were supplemented with a two week pilot scheme. Members of JISC were able to use the IP phones and soft-phones to get a real understanding of the product before a before full implementation. Members who knew they were going to work at home were able to use the soft phones on their own PCs or laptops and simply make and receive a call as if they were in the office.

Thirdly the level of technology and the array of features available were superior to the other offerings proposed.

Once the decision was made the solution was fully operational within half a day of receiving the hardware. All that was need was the delivery of the Cisco 7940 IP phones, and once they arrived all employees were allocated their extension numbers and the software was fully operational within hours.

The Outcome

It was felt that if the product could work that effectively in demonstration and to the standard required it was the system JISC could feel confident about.

It is only since the system has been in full use that JISC is able to fully understand the benefits of the Voicenet Solutions hosted VoIP solution both in costs and enhanced connectivity.

Due to the nature of work involved at JISC employees rely upon and make a large number of conference calls. It is thought that purely on these types of calls the organisation is already saving almost £1000 every month. Plus there is a further monthly saving of over £600 on basic call charges. This saving of course is in addition to that made on opting for a hosted solution negating the need and the expenditure for a propriety PBX.

Over a five year period the estimated savings will be:

£60,000 – conference calls

£36,000 – call charges

£40,000 – hardware

Total Savings, 60 months - £136,000

Customer Comment

“The cost effectiveness and the savings speak for themselves. But there are certain costs that we simply can not measure. Members of JISC can travel to America, use their Voicenet Solutions soft phone whilst in a hotel and make and receive calls as if they were in the office. They do not need to worry about connectivity or hotel charges. They can speak as if in the office still utilising all the features and making the most of the technology. In this instance, cutting costs does not mean cutting standards. This is a leading technology solution which has enhanced our organisation’s communication connectivity and enabled us to therefore be more productive.”

Yogi Patel, Financial Director, JISC