Our study centres are dotted across the UK, delivering key services to post-graduate students to supplement their workplace development and supported by a number of remote lecturers delivering study support, typically via the internet and phone.
My team and I know we were spending more and more time managing our network, from leaning on the in-house IT whizz to often being forced to bring in outside contractors at a cost to fix ‘glitches’ and replace legacy components. We were so busy, there never seemed a good time to address it properly so we limped on for around 6 months longer than we should have but were prompted into action when our network went down and we lost some critical data which wasn’t securely protected.
The first thing we did is had a look at accredited frameworks such as Janet Telecommunications for data services and OGC Buying Solutions for our voice calls and lines. We even checked Value Wales to make sure we hadn’t missed anyone – TalkTalk Business was highlighted as a market leader across them all, offering not just some services but all of them.
I had inherited the network we had, installed some 10 years earlier and felt ill-equipped to understand our communication requirements or onboard a new provider. The experienced team at TalkTalk Business have worked within the Public Services arena for more than 10 years and their client portfolio includes some of the biggest names in the industry. From the beginning they understood our challenges and proposed solutions that would work not just for our budget but operationally in line with our processes too.
The Solution
The first thing to tackle was spend – it was difficult to manage 3 separate invoices each month and when we calculated total monthly communications spend, we were shocked. For something so critical to running the organisation, we had let our telecoms spend run wild, totally forgotten as we were busy with other things.
We also knew we needed to work more effectively between our sites and remote homeworkers but the architecture didn’t support a streamlined approach as it had been extended and added to over and over, creating a patchwork of ‘short-term fixes’. TalkTalk Business helped us look at it from a different perspective – starting with needs and longer term requirements before even considering bandwidth needs and costs.
Reliability was also a big consideration as connections were often slow during busy periods and we’d often loose connection when we needed it most; during a web-ex conference or when delivering feedback to students in time for their submission dates. Lecturers were frustrated, students didn’t trust our service offering due to all the technical ‘glitches’ and costs were spiralling.
Fundamentally, the changes were made possible by TalkTalk Business’s Next Generation Network – because it’s built with new technology at its heart, it can be flexible yet robust and leverages new technology to pass on savings to customers which other providers struggle to match due to older, legacy network infrastructures. What’s more, with guaranteed bandwidth and disaster recovery back-up, should the worst happen, with TalkTalk Business you’re covered.
By installing an IPVPN service, our remote workers can now access shared files from one central location via a simple login, securely, around the clock and different services such as voice, web conferencing and email can be prioritised depending on your needs. Connection has been addressed with the introduction of Ethernet allowing us to adjust our bandwidth to suit our needs, offering up to 1Gbps capacity should we ever need it. Inter-site calls are now typically 20% less than previous due to the network being more efficient.
We worked with TalkTalk Business to change our existing telephone system (which was due for another costly upgrade) to a hosted solution, where the service is managed in ‘the cloud’ to reduce cap-ex, reduce maintenance costs and unlock a number of call handling services as you need them. This means that when we take a call, we can seamlessly transfer the caller through to any of our remote workers as if they are at their desk, in the office. This has greatly improved the customer experience and proved to manage inbound call traffic far more effectively instead of rummaging around for numbers or taking messages.
All this, coupled with super-low call rates to other sites and secure data back-up, everyone is happier knowing we now have a network architecture that works, costs far less, reduces day-to-day management and can grow with us.