When replacing an outdated system with integrated IP
telephony, law firm Forsters saved money with a bold "all or
nothing" approach. Helen Beckett reports
The move to new premises in London offered law firm Forsters a
green light to replace an outdated analogue telephony system.
For the IT department the big appeal of migrating was the
opportunity to manage telephony and communications infrastructures
without having to rely heavily on specialised external
engineers.
The analogue PABX served 150 extensions with a range of time
division multiplex-based functions, but was liable to failure. Nor
could it provide an effective voicemail service to users, essential
for modern business practice.
It had been built using proprietary coding and syntax, and even
relatively minor problems had required the presence of an external
engineer. Tasks such as setting up call divert or setting up
pick-up groups had a turnaround time of two to three hours.
"The old PBX was time-consuming to manipulate and manage for
network administrators. We wanted a system that we could manage
without having to traipse around the office fiddling with handsets,
and that provided our users with a better way of communicating,"
says IT manager AJ Meade.
Forsters hired Matrix consultants to evaluate kit and support
requirements and they recommended Mitel's 3300 integrated calling
platform. A pilot consisting of six phones plus a server running
client applications quickly proved cost effective and easy to use.
"Straight away we could manage the system and set up groups," says
Meade.
He remains pleased with the greater autonomy that his team has
gained. He says, "The IP user interface is very intuitive
(web-based) and anyone with a little IP knowledge can operate it."
Now, administrators can assign phones six-times faster than before,
a big improvement given the highly dynamic nature of case teams
within the practice.
IP telephony has also delivered the cost benefits it promised.
"Lawyers hate spending money," says Meade, and the product choice
was justified as being economically optimal and providing a return
on investment. The firm had considered a gradual migration to IP
telephony at its previous site but rejected it because it was too
expensive.
The conversion cards alone would have cost an extra £9,000, plus
maintaining two worlds entailed technical complexity and potential
cost, explains Meade. "It is like asking PABXs to talk German to
French." For Forsters, the big bang approach to voice over IP was
the more sensible option.
Big savings have flowed from the easier management of staff
telephony needs. In a law practice there is typically a lot of
movement of people. The sector has a higher turnover of employees
than banking or other industries for example, and a turnover rate
of 40% per annum is not unusual. Such heavy-duty maintenance on the
telecoms side meant costs soon stacked up.
In the future, Forster plans to use soft phones instead of the
full-blown IP handsets. Soft phone devices provide access to a
minimum of functionality, while all the other telephony
applications are accessed from the PC. It reduces the cost from
about £220 per IP handset to £60.
Training has proved straightforward. Three trainers from Mitel
were on site the day the system went live to instruct batches of
staff in the basics. In addition, they supplied tip sheets on the
fundamentals: how to make and forward a call, how to secure the
headset, and how to use do not disturb and auto answer.
For the IT team, training was also essential because support is
handled in-house. A big part of this involves "constant talk with
Matrix and Mitel to keep up-to-date on what is going on". Every
member of the team has been trained in how to set up a new
extension and facilities like hunt groups.
Since switching to VoIP, there has been an increase in
productivity and call resolution of the IT helpdesk. Previously
only 10% of calls could be resolved at first contact, compared to
about 95% with the new IP telephony system, and according to
Meade, maintenance costs have been halved as a result.
Unfortunately, voice and data integration and unified messaging
have not been realised to date, as Forsters uses Citrix to maintain
a thin version of applications at the client end and to centralise
all applications on central servers, and this cannot support
VoIP.
A thin client was selected for the desktop when the firm
originally set up because it offered better value and a greater
control of the desktop. Employees use the same applications, and so
it made sense to reduce desktop maintenance costs and offer these
from the server via Citrix, says Meade.
Developments in streaming technology should shortly bring the
benefits of VoIP to thin clients too.
Nonetheless, implementation of IP telephony has delivered other
benefits for the law firm. In particular, home working is a lot
easier to facilitate. "It is a massive improvement from analogue,"
says Meade. "We can give an IP phone to a member of staff and they
plug it into their laptop that connects to the network over the
internet and it becomes their desk phone."
Bringing thin clients into IP telephony
Developments in thin client technology mean that skinny desktop
devices will soon be able to take part in the VoIP fest.
For example, Wyse Technology, supplier of thin client devices,
released at the end of last year a streaming manager product that
works in conjunction with a "stateless client".
Thin clients need sufficient intelligence to connect to and
invoke software on a central server. By contrast, streaming
operates with an end device that is literally a piece of kit with
nothing preconfigured. The streaming is initiated at the centre and
delivered via the session.
"Issues that are traditionally associated with thin clients go
away with streaming technology," says Tony Lock, chief analyst with
Bloor Research.
Streaming enables stateless clients to have telephony streamed
to them and has the advantage that a "rip and replace" is not
required to turn a thin client into a stateless client. "It builds
on top," says Lock.
Read article:
IP telephony to the rescue