Business Challenge: • Install a new reliable, scalable and cost effective solution • Leverage existing data network infrastructure • Integrate seamlessly with existing PBX telephone systems • Ability to support remote workers and add on applications in the future • Support future growth of the college

Communication Solutions: • Mitel 3300 (ICP) • Mitel Teleworker Solution • Direct connect ISDN30 • Call routing • Line rental • Analogue lines Altogether Better Results: • College leveraged existing data infrastructure by seamlessly integrating voice on the network. • Migrated an IP communication solution to existing data network and PBX telephone systems therefore protecting initial investment • Installed a next generation communication system that provides a foundation to add on applications to support ongoing growth and five year business plan.

Regent’s College adopts Flexible Working

Regent’s College is a private federal institute situated in the beautiful Regent’s Park in central London, only 15 minutes walk from the financial centre, the West End and many other attractions in the city.

The college comprises four institutions of higher education: the British American College London, the European Business School, the School of Psychotherapy and the Webster Graduate School for American MA and MBA’s.

Home to 1,500 full time students representing over 106 nationalities and 600 staff, each college operates as a separate entity; however, being located on the same campus, the institutions share facilities and services such as HR, finance and administration.

Planning for expansion

The college recently unveiled an ambitious five year growth plan, one of the key elements of which was to double its student intake.

With the extra demand this would place on the college’s telecommunications system, Regent’s College’s Head of IT, David Elliott, began reviewing the existing IT infrastructure and options to support this expansion.

The team felt its existing Siemens PBX telephone system had come to the end of its life and could not accommodate the increase in volume resulting from the extra students, or add the necessary applications to take the college into the future.

Flexibility and efficiency

The new IP communications system has created a more flexible, effective and efficient working environment for Regent’s College, with employees no longer tied to their desks. Staff can be in a different department and log into a phone anywhere on the campus and have access to their personal voice mail, individual phone settings and directories.

In turn, this enables employees to offer a more responsive and comprehensive level of service to students calling in to the college.

Regent’s College is also advocating flexible working with a number of staff now able to work from home using the Teleworker solution, which enables them to access the same features and functionality they use in the office.

The option of teleworking gives employees the flexibility to achieve a work-life balance and enables the college to retain valuable members of staff who are keen to work from home, which is increasingly becoming an expectation from today’s workforce.

Looking to the future

As it continues to grow and strives to fulfil the goal of its five year business plan, the Mitel Networked Business Solution provides Regent’s College with the option to add applications that will extend the commercial benefits and add value to users.

For 2007, the college is considering unified messaging as an option to help streamline messaging for both staff and students – from supporting a single mailbox to speech enabled access to voicemail, email and fax. The system could be used to disseminate a raft of information, including registrations, automated course reminders and results.

Having just installed the 3Com data network, the college was keen to maximise its investment and use the same network for voice.

In order to find a suitable IP solution, the college decided to conduct a thorough review of the market, approaching eight voice and data resellers to put forward their suggested solution. After a thorough review of the benefits of each proposal, Telinet was selected to implement a Mitel Networked Business Solution.

Regent’s College says:

“We wanted a robust telephone system that gave us the flexibility to add on applications as we continue to expand, such as teleworking and eventually unified messaging. We knew that IP was the answer. Telinet presented a cost-effective, tailored solution, which perfectly met our requirements and fitted with the college’s overall strategy and five-year plan. Having worked with telinet on previous projects we were impressed with the professionalism of the team and the simplicity and ease of deployment of the Mitel IP solution they suggested. The Mitel 3300 Integrated Communications Platform (ICP) also provides us with a high level of reliability and integrates seamlessly with our existing data network.

The Mitel IP solution was simple to work with and easy to deploy. We started the migration to IP over a weekend and the system was up and running on the Monday morning. With the Mitel Networked Business Solution we’ve protected our existing investment by not ripping out the Siemens PBX and being able to migrate users over to IP at our own pace and of course leverage the data network at the same time. It’s already proving a very flexible and cost-effective communications solutions.

In the past, the College’s network frequently went down with moves, adds and changes - painful for the IT team due to the sheer volume of extra work they incurred. The Mitel network is considerably more robust and reliable, allowing staff to simply move their handset to a different desk, enter a pin number and continue making calls; this has reduced the IT team’s workload dramatically.

The Mitel 3300 Integrated Communications Platform (ICP) also provides us with a high level of reliability and integrates seamlessly with our existing data network.”



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