Voice over IP (VOIP) Review
Socitm Consulting use their unrivalled expertise in both procurement and Voice over IP solutions to enable Belfast City Council to ensure they obtained best value for money from its procurement of a new telephone system.
In the summer of 2008 Belfast City Council (BCC) engaged Socitm Consulting to review their Voice network. At that time BCC had a mixture of telephone systems including Digital Private Automatic Branch Exchanges (PABXs) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions. They had recently deployed a large scale VoIP solution following an office move, but with mixed success. BCC recognised that they needed expert help to re-evaluate the business benefits of VoIP and the suitability of their existing deployment, and also to receive recommendations on how they should move forward.
Socitm Consulting adopted a three-stage approach to the initial project.
The first phase was one of information gathering and agreement of project deliverables with BCC.
In the second phase, possible options were developed with BCC and a workshop was held where these options were presented to stakeholders for analysis and option ranking using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques. The session proved to be very constructive with all members actively contributing to the establishment of suitable criteria against which the options would be assessed. Having users working with the technical team ensured a lively debate ensued on the pros and cons of each option.
A report and presentation highlighting the business benefits of VoIP including Unified Communications, the current state of the existing VoIP infrastructure and service, the options analysis and recommendations on the way forward formed the third and final phase of the work.
One of the recommendations in our report was that the Council should undertake a competitive tender for any new VoIP systems it wished to procure. In the following months the Council went out to tender and in May 2009 Socitm Consulting was again asked to attend and comment on the presentations from the leading bidders. Having selected the supplier the Council then asked our Consultant to comment on the draft contract documentation prior to contract signature.
With our extensive knowledge of VoIP implementations in the Public and Private sector we were able to quickly understand the issues Belfast City Council were facing. In what can be the somewhat confusing world of VoIP we were able to dispel some of the myths and make clear recommendations enabling the Council to undertake a successful VoIP procurement.
David Kelly, Portfolio Manager – Infrastructure & Customer Service at BCC, commented, “By providing us with a both experienced and practically minded consultant, Socitm Consulting helped us gain further confidence when selecting a corporate VoIP solution. I am confident that the solution BCC selected and the approach outlined by the selected supplier will result in a successful VoIP implementation across the entire council”.
Project ID
Client organisation: Belfast City Council
Client contact: David Kelly, Portfolio Manager – Infrastructure & Customer Service, kellyd@belfastcity.gov.uk, Tele 028 9024 4832
Lead consultant: Keith Harman
Project no: 7192
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