South Staffordshire College says it has reduced costs and improved training and teaching methods after implementing Unify’s unified communications services earlier this year.
The college, which has 10,000 students and 900 staff in campuses across Tamworth, Lichfield, Cannock and Rodbaston, had been relying on a HiPath 3000 solution before wanting a standardised system that would improve cost savings and develop staff and students productivity.
South Staffordshire plumped for Unify’s OpenScape Business platform, which was installed in the first quarter of 2014 across the five campuses with the help of Unify’s accredited partner Midlands Telecom.
Jamie Smith, director of strategy and infrastructure at South Staffordshire College, told CBR the challenges of installing the system centred mainly on avoiding disruption to normal business operations during the installation process.
He said: "This is where it is essential that you partner with someone who understands your business priorities and works closely in partnership to avoid disruption and to deliver a seamless implementation.
"Midland TML take a client focus that goes beyond SLAs and measure their success by that of their clients. For leaders of large and complex organisations this approach just removes a number of headaches and enables the project to be delivered on time, to target and to budget."
The system includes mobile conferencing, web collaboration, along with support and maintenance services.
Smith said: "The solution went live in the first quarter of 2014 and supported our business operations through the busiest time of the year as we enrolled thousands of new learners in September.
"The new functionality of the technology enabled a more flexible and agile call centre operation, enabling the college to handle a record number of calls with ease."
He added: "The return on investment for this project is measured both in terms of direct efficiencies arising from reduced operating costs from dealing with one unified communications technology, but equally importantly from delivering a consistent resilient service to both internal and external customers.
"It has professionalised our communications solutions and enabled us to deliver a better service to our customers."
