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Case Study: West Bridgford
This case study explains how NT helped The West Bridgford School Specialist Technology Academy attain a cost effective and flexible solution to meet the challenges they were facing.
About the Academy
The West Bridgford School is a Specialist Technology Academy, caring for nearly 1,500 pupils between the ages of 11 and 18. Rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, the school boasts the national enhanced Healthy School status and the Eco-Schools green flag award.
Business Need:
West Bridgford Academy had a very old PABX type telephone system that, over the years, had extra bits bolted on as the School had grown. The system was now up to capacity and did not allow the flexibility that the school needed. The telephone lines were from a different supplier to the system and did not provide enough capacity for parents’ calls to get through at busy times.
As the school covers a large site members of staff were often difficult to contact if they were not at their desk. An area of concern for the school was its ability to provide the right level of communication and service for both parents and staff. The existing telephone system was labour intensive in terms of answering increasing levels of internal and external calls; in addition, the growth of the school together with the introduction of new educational initiatives often required the re-location of teaching staff and pupils into different areas of the school site.
It was clear that the school needed a more flexible, feature rich communications system. Another challenge as with many organisations was finding the budget for the new system.
Solution:
Carol Sheffield, West Bridgford Academy’s Director of Services & School Day explained,
“In accordance with our audit regulations, we asked three companies to submit proposals. After some evaluation, the school favoured the solution from NT Voice & Data Solutions, based on the Avaya IP Office system”.
NT Voice & Data Solutions had been able to consult with the members of staff at West Bridgford Academy over a number of months to identify a cost effective and flexible solution to meet challenges being faced. The Avaya IP 500 was chosen because it provides the ability to use the existing network infrastructure that connects the multiple buildings across the site and offers plenty of flexibility for future growth in terms of adding extra users but also allows a modular approach to adding business applications as and when the need arises. One of the current promotions from Avaya is a 0% Finance scheme which helped meet the challenge of finding the budget for the system.
Benefits:
Improved service
Incoming callers are able to select the department they wish to contact which helps the main Reception area at busy times. Reception has a desktop console which shows them all of the staff’s availability and allows them to direct the calls efficiently.
Reduced man hours
There is a general feeling in the school, especially amongst the reception staff that the system, as well as providing a better standard of service, is doing so with a much reduced level of receptionist intervention.
Greater flexibility
The system already provides the school with the flexibility to accommodate growth and interdepartmental re-organisations, with minimum fuss and in an economic manner. The system also allows for rapid lock down of telephones, to prevent unauthorised use along with being able run reports and usage and retrieve call recordings
Scalability
The investment in the Avaya IP Office is protected in that if the school requires further accommodation to be built, then the system can be scaled to meet the new requirement.
Working with NT:
"NT understood our Schools’ needs by proposing and providing some innovative solutions. The system for reporting faults is much easier than our previous provider offered. We are now able to use emails to report faults, and receive feedback. In addition, some faults can be fixed remotely saving call-out fees and time. Clear reporting on costs and individual line usage is available for the first time from my desk top. Any easy to use on-line account provides me with all my monthly billing reporting needs. NT’s staff are pleasant and helpful and keen to resolve issues quickly, with a minimum disruption to our School”.