In common with many organisations of its size, a key
challenge for Four Seasons Health Care was to find a cost effective
way of managing communications across the whole
company.
Four Seasons is the largest care home owner and operator in the
UK, with 400 homes for the elderly and eight specialised care
centres in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In late 2002, the organisation decided to improve efficiency by
centralising its administration and accountancy functions into a
new building in Darlington.
"With the re-organisation of our administration and accountancy
functions to the new site in Darlington, we wanted to be sure we
were putting in the most up-to-date technology,"says John Brogan,
group IT manager, Four Seasons. "And having read much about the
cost savings generated by IP telephony, it seemed a good option to
investigate."
Network healthcheck
Telecoms supplier BT carried out a full audit of the
organisations' communications requirements in January 2003. The
process involved an analysis of the technology used at Four
Seasons' other sites, in particular at its second main site in
Wilmslow, which takes the majority of the internal traffic.
The Wilmslow site had had a high specification PBX installed
recently, rendering a complete overhaul unnecessary. However, it
was important to make internal calls between the two sites more
cost effective. Therefore, IP handsets were connected to the
existing data network, and then - with a Cisco IP-enabled switch -
connected users to the network in Darlington.
The supplier also recommended that a converged network
infrastructure be deployed at the Darlington site, allowing voice
and data traffic to run across one network, and reducing the cost
associated with network maintenance.
The solution, based on Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice,
Video and Integrated Data), is scalable and allows Four Seasons to
extend IP to its other sites in the future.
"The Cisco AVVID architecture ensures we have the
future-proofing and Quality of Service assurance we require," says
Brogan.
The solution is also protected through use of SRST (Survivable
Remote Station Telephony), which ensures that, in the unlikely
event of system failure, all voice traffic will be routed via an
ISDN connection and operations will be maintained.
"Security and reliability are priorities. As a healthcare
provider, our staff often have to discuss personal patient details
or need information at short notice. BT IP Clear and the ISDN
backup gave us the peace of mind to migrate to IP telephony,"
Brogan adds.
Looking to the future, Four Seasons is also connecting its
healthcare sites to the new IP network, the first of which, The
Huntercombe Roehampton Hospital, went live in December 2003.
"The beauty of the solution is that we could IP-enable The
Huntercombe Roehampton Hospital without any major network upgrades.
[We] simply installed a Cisco IP-enabled switch into the existing
data network. Once the IP phones were linked, we were ready to go,"
he comments.
The Huntercombe Roehampton Hospital proved an excellent test bed
and resulted in considerable cost savings for Four Seasons: rather
than having to install a new PBX system at the site, the only cost
was the installation of IP handsets and routers.
"In short, [we now have] a straightforward path to IP
integration across the whole business," concludes Brogan. "And it's
clear the new infrastructure will save us a considerable amount of
money."
Money that can be invested in new facilities and raising the
standard of care Four Seasons provides to an even higher level.