The Kent Police Force is an enthusiastic advocate of
do-it-yourself when it comes to managing voice and data networks -
for the sound reason that it is cheaper.
Recent experience of migrating to a single converged network and
implementing voice over IP throughout the force has strengthened
its belief in this approach.
Cost is always a major factor in determining any investment for
Kent Police. "We take the business case extremely seriously to
ensure best value for taxpayers," said Andrew Barker, acting head
of the Information Services Directorate (ISD) at Kent Police.
Like any other public sector agency or business, Kent Police
balances cost against risk when making procurement decisions.
"There is a prevailing sentiment that a higher cost for a managed
service buys a lower-risk investment," said Barker. "I don't buy
that argument."
Barker's conviction that in-house VoIP networks deliver better
value stems from his experience of upgrading voice communications
for Kent Police over a three-year period.
Telephony is crucial to Kent Police. It has 55 county-wide
stations plus a call centre, and the phone remains the primary
means of communication with the community. "Our existing system was
based on an ageing infrastructure, and we were starting to
encounter a number of performance problems, such as outages and
incompatibility," said Barker.
Installing one IP network for voice and data and treating
telephony as simply another application made a great deal of
financial sense. The savings stemmed from maintaining one instead
of two separate networks and a vastly reduced bill for
telephony.
However, this financial calculation would have been very
different had Kent proceeded with the bid for a managed service
from one of the major telecoms providers. Accepting the bid for a
managed service would not have decreased the force's telephony
costs - in fact, it would have doubled the voice bill. Barker
dismissed the managed service option as "hideously expensive and
unaffordable".
Instead, Kent Police opted for a phased DIY approach and hired
Computacenter for design and consultancy for the IP-based
communications infrastructure. A phased approach towards the IP
network and voice applications was adopted because at the time of
Kent Police's upgrade, it was not economic to implement IP handsets
wholesale.
Because of the then high cost of handsets, there was a point at
which it became uneconomic - at around 15 handsets - so it decided
to start with the smaller sites. "It was the less risky and
economically sensible approach to take," said Barker. "Taking a
phased approach was also useful in learning lessons from a virtual
pilot."
The single network was installed and VoIP rolled out to all
locations. However, until the cost of the IP handsets fell
sufficiently, 17 sites retained their analogue Siemens PABXs and
used bridging software to talk to the IP world.
Operating two universes in parallel, analogue and digital,
created technical difficulties at the larger, legacy sites, but
translation software from Abridge maintained functionality across
the two environments, enabling "call forward" and "return to
switchboard" to be passed between DPNS codes and IP domains.
To further mitigate the risk, Computacenter carried out a
proof-of-concept exercise at a configuration centre. The Kent team
used the staging facilities at the centre to replicate the force's
proposed network architecture, and carried out more than 170 tests
to evaluate its resilience, capacity and performance. The result
was a functioning interim system, although Barker concedes the
bridge between IP and analog was subject to interruption and
breakdown.
Nor did full cost savings accrue until the IP handset part of
the solution was fully rolled out. Although Kent Police immediately
gained the cost savings that accompany using a single IP network
for voice and IP calls, the other part of the cost equation comes
from updating the routing from the legacy PABXs to the IP handset
itself.
The chief cost savings of using IP handsets come about because
of the intelligent routing capabilities that are distributed to the
handset device. This results in a greatly reduced maintenance cost
because moving, repairing and updating individual telephone
extensions can be done centrally on a call manager server. "It's a
very simple and flexible browser-based process for such
activities," said Barker. And for the user, it is a case of plug
'n' go.
"That's a very big benefit in the police world," said
Barker.
If there's a terror incident or a murder investigation, lots of
personnel and officers are moved around. "Telecoms support for this
kind of operation was traditionally a problem. In the new world,
people just take their phone to the new location and plug it in,"
said Barker.
There are also opportunities to gain productivity savings from
the integrated applications on the IP phone. One is accessing the
full telephone directory rather than having to log onto the
intranet, and there is the option to put lots of other intranet
applications on the handset too, such as policing statistics and IT
systems status. Meanwhile, the phone has been linked to personnel
attendance systems and is used for clocking in and booking time
off.
As a result of the implementation, three years down the line
Kent Police has reaped bigger dividends than it expected. An
anticipated annual saving of 30% on its communications costs has
turned out to be nearer 40%.
Kent Police will also be able to add extra sites to its network
at a much lower cost. In addition to the financial savings, the
force has been able to enhance performance levels and deliver a
consistent communications service across the county. "I cannot
understand why companies in the public sector go for the managed
option," said Barker.
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