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Case Study - Lovell |
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Hosted IP telephony service Lovell is the country’s leading provider of affordable housing. The company specialises in mixed tenure developments operating at the cutting edge of urban regeneration to create sustainable communities. This means working in partnership with housing associations and local authorities, with the tight controls that this entails. In keeping with its adoption of innovative technologies to maintain its competitive edge, Lovell has deployed AlwaysON Hosted IP Telephony at the site of a major housing scheme: Yallops Yard, in Bow, East London. |
Yallows Yard Yallops Yard, Bow, is the remaining major site of Tower Hamlets Housing Action Trust (THHAT) urban redevelopment programme, part of a phased renewal of old council estate land. It forms part of the strategically important Leaside Regeneration Area: with London having won the 2012 Olympics bid, the whole area is undergoing massive, high profile redevelopment and nearby Stratford has been chosen as the site for the Olympic Village. In partnership with THHAT, Lovell’s £50 million redevelopment of the previously unattractive Yallop’s Yard brownfield site will create a fantastic place to live, just three miles from the City of London, and will include ‘affordable housing’ and a community centre. Work began in 2004 after extensive consultation with the local community and Lovell’s role includes creating 400 one and two bedroom apartments, due for completion in 2007.
Early in the Yallops Yard project, there was a single site management office with telephony provided by a traditional switchboard (PABX). As the site developed, so did the need to relocate the site office - often at short notice, and typically over a week-end. Before long, numerous temporary offices were serving up to 300 contractors, project managers and site staff at any one time. The limitations of the single switchboard became apparent.
Flexible solution from AlwaysON A more flexible solution needed putting in place – fast. With the Olympic connection meaning the potential for a lot of public interest should costs escalate or things go wrong. Effective onsite communications are absolutely vital to the project management of Yallops Yard site. They have a vital role in ensuring smooth and effective supplies, particularly delivery of goods and materials to the right locations. Upon arrival, supplies need to be checked and signed off by appropriate personnel who have to be located immediately. Furthermore, these arrivals – often over 100 a day - need to be smoothly co-ordinated with other onsite activities.
AlwaysON partner - PSG Networks PSG Networks is an independent systems integrator which specialises in the design and provision of cost effective voice and data solutions to the construction industry. The company has a long-term relationship with Lovell, having supported the construction company with a range of communications solutions for more than seven years. PSG Networks designed a bespoke telephony solution to meet the numerous challenges involved at Yallop’s Yard, deploying AlwaysON’s hosted IP telephony service.
Hosted IP telephony service By choosing a hosted IP telephony service, where the functions of a traditional telephone system are provided from a remote location, all site offices, extensions and staff are effectively connected to a single ‘virtual PABX’ (virtual switchboard) – and with a host of extra functions. Using the AlwaysON system, key Lovell staff now can be contacted directly on their personal direct dial (DDI) numbers, or on any phone, anywhere, using the "Reach me" function. Changes can be easily made by site administrators, without needing to call on Lovell’s IT team, through COMPASS (Combined Order Management Provisioning and Support System), AlwaysON’s web portal , with PSG always on hand to help out. This results in substantial cost savings and reduces delays.
Another popular facility is the email notification of voicemail messages. This unifies all voice and email messages into the user’s Outlook inbox. Hosted IP telephony lends itself well to the sheer size of the Yallops Yard construction site, with its constantly changing requirements – downwards as well as upwards - and need for management staff, in particular, to be constantly, easily, contactable. It can be deployed at sites with smaller offices that could, in the past, justify only basic telephony. It can be easily and cost-effectively set up, including features like transferring calls between phones and call forwarding.
Using AlwaysON’s hosted IP telephony service over Lovell’s Cisco based network (LAN), PSG has provided Lovell with improved internal communications, and reduced rate calls to both suppliers and to its Tamworth headquarters. The overall phone bill for the site has reduced by at least 15%. And in an industry where all of the costs are traditionally ‘up front’, a flexible hosted IP telephony solution with very low set-up and running costs was highly attractive. Lovell's Head of IT, Dave Weaver, commented: "The massive reduction in time and effort spent on site telephony management is really appreciated. It has freed our internal resources for more important work."
Smooth migration to AlwaysON service PSG ensured a smooth transition to the hosted IP telephony solution, from project management through to implementation. Staff moved onto the new system with a minimum of fuss over a period of 24 hours. AlwaysON worked closely with several telecoms providers to port telephone numbers already in use to the new service. "I know it’s a seemingly small detail but being able to keep the existing external telephone numbers was vital" said Rob Dowsett, Sales Director, PSG, "Losing them would have been a real showstopper." The AlwaysON service can also be redeployed simply and quickly to other construction sites, complete with existing telephone extensions, when the project has ended, so staff contact details remain the same as they move from one project to the next.
The last word Senior site personnel now have personal telephone numbers that will remain with them long after the Yallops yard project is completed, meaning that they will be contactable wherever they are. Last word goes to Monique Nel, site administrator: "When deliveries arrive, the drivers are under pressure to move on. Without wanting to stereotype, some of them are notorious for their colourful language, so being able to sort them out quickly has made our lives, as well as theirs, a lot more pleasant!"
Technical noteSite connectivity for the AlwaysON IP voice network is a single 1Mbps SDSL link supporting 10 voice circuits, 30 extensions and 26 Polycom IP500 handsets. The Polycom IP500 handsets simply plug into the site’s LAN, which is in turn connected to the SDSL line via an AlwaysON router. |
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