Call Costs Case Studies
Pink Telecom In conjunction with Telstra Europe Signs 1.5 Million Pound Outsourcing Agreement with Millfield Partnership Limited
A leading UK Independent Financial Adviser to benefit from improved business efficiencies through Telstra Europe's hosted e-business and VOIP services.
London, 09 June 2005, Telstra Europe, a leading provider of voice and internet services has signed a £1.5m deal with one of the UK's largest independent financial advisory companies, Millfield Partnership, to provide a scalable, advanced, Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) based managed services platform linking the company's 40 regional offices in the UK. The solution is being deployed by a key Telstra channel partner, Pink Telecommunications Ltd, a leading reseller of voice and data network solutions.
Under the agreement, Millfield Partnership will outsource the management of its network, together with its mission-critical customer databases which are accessed by over 1,600 of the company's financial advisers on a daily basis, its IT operations and its online services operations. Telstra's managed services approach will deliver improved business efficiencies for Millfield Partnership and the freedom to focus more closely on core business operations and customer service levels.
The collaboration between Telstra and Pink will deliver a truly converged Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) solution between Millfield Partnership's 40 regional offices, delivering significant cost-efficiencies in its communications throughout the business. Telstra will replace three incumbent suppliers of voice and data services including BT, Tiscali and AlwaysOn over a three year period.
The reasons for adopting Telstra's services included its robust Disaster Recovery facility at its London Hosting Centre in the Docklands, its proven track record of delivery-converged e-business solutions and keen understanding of the voice and data requirements that enterprises face today.
Mike Duncan, Group Operations Director at Millfield Partnership commented, "The financial services industry is becoming increasingly regulated and it is vital that our mission-critical data is securely managed in line with regulatory compliance. Legally, we have to ensure we have stringent Disaster Recovery measures in place to ensure the protection of our customers' information. Pink, who has maintained our voice network over the last three years, recommended Telstra on the strength of its reputation as a managed service provider for e-business and its financial stability; this prompted our decision to partner with them. Telstra's London Hosting Centre will now host the heart of our operations - our customer database, IT operations and online services operation."
"This move will not only greatly enhance our business operations and deliver efficiencies throughout Millfield Partnership, it will also ensures that we can be confident that we are always in line with FSA regulatory requirements and that our customer data security is fail-safe. By selecting Telstra, we have one supplier, instead of three: greatly reducing the complexity of our business, alleviating the management headaches involved in dealing with multiple suppliers and making significant time and resource savings."
David Thorn, CEO of Telstra Europe, commented, "UK financial institutions are under immense regulatory pressure and the protection and security of their customer information is critical. We are delighted we can alleviate some of Millfield Partnership's data management and regulatory challenges and provide the company with peace of mind and confidence that its business operations are in very safe hands."
Peter Southgate, managing director of Pink Telecommunications Ltd, commented, "We are delighted to work closely with Telstra to help deliver such a collaborative solution for Millfield Partnership. This agreement demonstrates our mutual commitment to working in partnership to provide companies with robust, scalable, high quality telco solutions to address business needs."
Telstra Europe is one of the largest independent providers of telecommunications and managed e-business infrastructure to business users, providing high quality and secure communications solutions and managed hosting and professional services for mission-critical business systems.
Millfield Partnership's hosting services will be delivered over Telstra Europe's IP network and through its state-of-the-art data centres and supported by industry-leading Service Level Agreements (SLAs), including the provision of 24x7x365 technical support via its European Customer Services Centre, based in London's Docklands.
Phase one of the project - the construction of the data centre and the relocation of the Millfield Group's core business processing application ATLAS will be complete by June 2005. The next two stages - the migration of site connectivity and delivery of other core support services, such as e-mail will be completed by the end of 2005.
Horsham District Council Drives e-government with Avaya
Council uses IP telephony to embrace e-government and enhance service for local residents with IP telephony.
Avaya, a leading provider of communications networks and services for businesses, today announced the deployment of a converged communication system using IP telephony for Horsham District Council in Sussex in the south of England. The new system, recommended and installed by business partner, Pink Telecommunications will enable a faster, more effective response to enquiries from over 121,000 of the district's residents, making services more accessible and user friendly.
The new Avaya IP Office™ communications system will help Horsham District Council meet the UK government objectives of delivering services electronically by 2005. The new system based on IP Office will provide the bandwidth, flexibility and resilience necessary for the transformation.
Kathleen Klasnic, lead analyst for Public Sector Technology at Datamonitor commented, "We are starting to see growing acceptance of IP telephony in Local Government which is borne out by our research which shows that over 50% of authorities in a recent survey are expecting to deploy the technology in the next six months. Horsham District Council is one of the early adopters of IP telephony to support egovernment services along with other, larger metropolitan areas".
The Avaya IP Office converged communication system recommended and installed by business partner, Pink Telecoms replaces separate, traditional telephone systems at each of the Council's seven offices. The head office, a number of branch offices and council leisure facilities such as The Capitol Theatre and Horsham Museum are linked together as one system for the first time to improve communication. IP Office enables all the sites to be linked seamlessly with efficient routing of telephone calls enhancing service to local residents as well as avoiding lost and misdirected calls. The system reduces costs by routing calls made from any internal location over the Council's network as opposed to the public network, and decreases maintenance charges as a result of having one system.
Also Horsham District Council is proposing the use of Avaya's softphone technology to support remote working for its seven cabinet members who are senior decision-makers in the Council. Softphone technology allows phone calls to be made and received from a laptop or PC from any location such as home using IP telephony. This will allow cabinet members to be more flexible and responsive to the needs of residents within the district.
Terry McDonald, ICT director of Horsham District Council said, "We are committed to providing residents with improved online access to the Council's services in the most cost effective manner and IP telephony is integral to that aim. Our communications system is one of the key components that will provide our 121,000+ residents with improved access to those services."
"We recognised the benefits that the Avaya communications system would bring to the council," said Kevin Boyer, commercial development manager for Pink Telecommunications. "Avaya IP Office enabled us to provide the right solution to address the high customer service requirements of government and provide services when and how they wish, whether that be via phone, email or fax."
Pink Telecom recommended the Avaya system to Horsham District Council after completing a rigorous selection process comprising numerous official tenders. Horsham District Council awarded Pink Telecom the contract on the basis that it could provide full project management including expert technical advice on design, selection and support during the implementation of each of the seven Avaya IP Office communication systems. The systems include many applications: softphone; automated attendant; voicemail; voice recording; and a multimedia contact centre. These applications will provide the Council with enhanced productivity statistics with which to improve call-handling efficiency and service to residents.
"In today's competitive environment it is essential to provide customers with tangible return on investment," said Richard Pitt, sales director for Avaya's Small and Medium-sized Business Solutions group. "We feel that this new communications network fits the council's requirements and will provide a return on investment."
After implementation, Pink Telecom provided full training of the new system and is providing ongoing support 24 hours, seven days per week. Pink Telecom replaced a 500-seat system with the new Avaya network within 48 hours over a weekend with a 100 percent success rate.