The Alzheimer's Society is trialling aunified communications systemas part
of its attempt to increase productivity.
The system under trial has been provided by
NEC Philips Unified Solutions. It incorporates
Microsoft's Office Communications Server (OCS) and Live
Meeting, as well as NEC Philips'
IP telephony and contact centre technology.
It is designed to help the Alzheimer's Society streamline
business processes by improving the reachability and presence
information of staff. This information is invaluable in helping to
route the large number of in-bound telephone calls around the
organisation to the appropriate person.
The Alzheimer's Society is merging its two London Head office
buildings to a new head office site which is currently under
refurbishment. The creation of a new site led the charity to
consider a new communications infrastructure.
Upon successful completion of the trial, the charity plans to
roll out
unified communications across its 250 branches and up to 1,400
staff nationwide.
Phil Shoesmith, the charity's head of IT said, "We expect to
reap numerous benefits from
unified communications. Improved staff connectivity and
enhanced presence information will have a very positive impact on
business productivity and efficiency."
He said, "Given that we have more than 200 members of staff in
our head office and numerous regional sites, the ability to find
out at a glance which member of staff is available to take a call
is invaluable in speeding up the decision making process and
handling calls."
By incorporating Microsoft Office Live Meeting, the charity also
plans to revolutionise its training sessions by running live
broadcasts for delegates to attend remotely.