Background
The park is run as a charitable trust with any profits generated by the activity of the park being distributed among local good causes. This brings with it several challenges due to the level of scrutiny over how money is spent with the park unable except in exceptional circumstances to engage in speculative building, and only usually able to begin construction projects once an end occupier is found or where there is a high probability of prompt letting.

The Issues
The whole purpose of the park's serviced accommodation has always been to provide clients with a 'complete solution' - allowing them to concentrate on running their business, which includes business telecoms and phone calls. This way, if there was ever a problem with the telecoms service, the occupiers were secure in the knowledge that these would be sorted out by the park and the telecoms provider. However, from the early days, this element of the service has faced several issues. Initial problems with overloaded lines affected the call line quality New Greenham were able to provide to clients. Lines were moved to another supplier but this led to a rapid deterioration in the service levels being provided to clients due to constant errors with billing and administration. Companies moving offices often caused unnecessary confusion, leading to incorrect bills and disconnections. It was time to seek an alternative calls and lines services supplier.

The Answer
New Greenham Park Estate Manager, Paul Craggs explains his key criteria when looking for a new calls and line services provider. "Our main aim was to reduce the costs to our clients whilst receiving better information in terms of billing and call analysis.

This is particularly important in maintaining and improving the level of customer service we provide to our clients when you consider that we are providing calls and lines to so many companies. The other driving factor was the desire to limit direct involvement with the company that owned the line infrastructure as this was the route of so many of the problems." Right from the initial discussions, it was clear that Southern Communications could provide the billing and reporting that was needed by supplying detailed, real-time information on all incoming and outgoing calls. This would save New Greenham Park time and money in administration whilst enabling them to improve the service they provided to the occupants of the serviced office accommodation. Not only this, but by introducing per second billing and removing minimum call charges they were able to demonstrate significant cost savings on the calls and lines themselves. However, it was the personal service and approach that Paul says gave Southern Communications the edge over the competition. "I had faith in their proactive attitude, and was confident that even if I was to look elsewhere I wouldn't be able to find a better deal."

The Benefits
Following the decision to switch call provider to Southern Communications, New Greenham Park has been able to pass on incredible savings to their clients of 30% on the costs of calls. In addition, the park has been able to realise dramatic improvements in the customer service to their clients thanks to the improved reporting and other specialist services offered by Southern Communications.

The result is a telecoms service that is flexible enough to cater for the varying demands of all of New Greenham Park’s clients whilst satisfying the need to achieve best value for the Trust.

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Expro specialise in Oil Well flow management and is a leading provider of products and services that measure, improve, control and process flow from highvalue oil and gas wells. Its customers include global brands such as BP, Mobil and Exxon. With its head office in the UK, Expro employs more than 4,000 highly trained staff in 50 countries and is owned by a Private Equity consortium led by Candover.

Background
Expro has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Firstly, the acquisition of another provider in 2006 meant the business doubled in size overnight. This was followed by a change of ownership when a Private Equity consortium led by Candover took over control in early 2008, turning Expro from a UK-only business to a multi-site, global company operating in more than 50 countries.

The Issues
The changes in business structure and ownership were a driving force in Expro addressing several key issues with its telecoms systems. The quick growth meant that telecoms costs were increasing rapidly as the number of employees and sites grew both in the UK and internationally. However, it was an error made
by the previous telecoms supplier that led Expro to seek an alternative telecoms provider. Martin Ogden, Head of Infrastructure and Operations Support explains. "During a 2007 head office move mistakes made by the provider at the time led to downtime in some of the vital business systems we rely on. This, coupled with rising telecoms costs and an unsatisfactory level of customer service resulted in us making the decision to seek an alternative supplier." Martin says that in reality reducing the costs of their telecoms was not the driving factor in selecting Southern Communications. "We needed a supplier that was easy to
deal with and could quickly assess and understand our needs, leaving us free to concentrate on the business." In total, three providers were asked to tender for the contract and even at this early stage, Southern Communications began to emerge as a front-runner. "They provided a simple, to-the-point proposal that was easy to understand and showed a clear understanding of our needs, whilst demonstrating they could reduce the cost of our calls and lines" says Martin. They quickly made the decision to switch supply to Southern Communications.

The Answer
Southern Communications quickly took control of the whole calls and lines transfer process, ensuring a trouble-free transition of all of the company's calls and lines. Martin continues, "It was very important for us to work with a supplier that we could rely on and one that could offer excellent service levels. Southern Communications simply did what they said they would do, when they said they would do it, without us needing to constantly chase and manage them. From a financial point of view they were a lot cheaper than our previous supplier but more importantly, the whole process was so easy". Southern Communications were also invaluable when it came to understanding and resolving issues with a new call management system being installed at the Expro head office - identifying old lines that were incompatible and resolving the problems quickly and with no downtime.

The Benefits
Expro continue to enjoy real benefits as a result of switching it's telecoms to Southern Communications. Not only has the company seen a reduction in it's call charges of between 20-30%, but more importantly, the service has been unquestionable. The result is a robust telecoms service that maximises
business efficiency by allowing the management team at Expro to focus on running the business.

Martin concludes: "Southern Communications deal with everything very, very well. We were so impressed we signed a two year deal on renew of our initial contract."

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Sovereign Housing Association was set up in 1989, originally starting life as West Berkshire Housing Association, taking 7109 homes from the District Council. On 1 April 2005, they formed a new more flexible group structure with Sovereign Housing Group becoming the‘parent’, responsible for various subsidiaries, the first being Sovereign Housing Association. In April 2005, Twynham joined the Group, followed by The Vale Housing Association in April 2007. This rapid growth has taken the Group's housing stock from its initial 7000 properties to more than 23,000 homes in over 50 local authorities, with plans to increase this to around 30,000 homes during 2009, following the planned amalgamation of Wessex Housing Partnership.

Background
Like any business, Sovereign Housing Group is subject to constant scrutiny in order to ensure it is getting best value for money. The Housing Corporation, (which became the Homes and Communities Agency at the beginning of this year, the Government agency who fund and regulate social landlords) regularly audits the Group to guarantee cost effectiveness and efficiency are being maximised. As a result, there is a constant pressure to achieve best practice, service and value in everything the Group does and this means that the same expectations are placed upon all of its suppliers.

The Issues
With the rapid growth of the Group, the telecoms infrastructure had become fragmented as well as more complex to manage. As a result, Sovereign were concerned that they may have been paying more than necessary for the services they needed and receiving others they simply didn't! There was also a growing frustration with the service provided by the telecoms supplier at the time, who weren't proactive in suggesting the best deals and proving difficult to deal with, particularly when it came to providing engineers to fix problems.

The Answer
Sovereign Housing Group’s IT management team undertook a thorough review of the Group’s telecoms infrastructure to determine the systems they had, what they needed and just as importantly, what they didn't need. They then set about the task of finding a suitable supplier to help them move forward. Dudley Spicer, Technical Support Manager, says there were two elements they was looking for when selecting a new business telecoms supplier. "We wanted to deal with a company that would deliver the best value package for our needs and support everything with an excellent level of customer service. Basically, a company that would have our best interests at heart."

After an initial discussion and proposal with Southern Communications, the team were impressed enough to follow up the meetings with other local companies that were using Southern Communications in order to gain an unbiased view of their services. "The initial proposal clearly demonstrated that our costs would reduce but we wanted some impartial feedback on the level of service they provided." They were quickly reassured by what they found."Everyone we spoke to was clearly being looked after - benefiting from a very proactive approach to ensure they always received the best value together with an account management structure that meant any problems were sorted out quickly and efficiently." Sovereign quickly made the decision to move their calls and lines to Southern Communications, a process that was dealt with flawlessly and with no interruptions to the service - something Dudley doubts would have happened with other suppliers.

The Benefits
Following the decision to switch provider to Southern Communications, Sovereign have continued to enjoy many benefits, both in terms of savings as well as improvements in business efficiencies. Dudley says "We've seen our costs reduced by an average of 15 - 20% and the level of customer support is excellent. We like the local feel which gives the impression of a much closer relationship and this is backed up by account managers who are easy to get hold of and a pleasure to deal with." The result is a telecoms infrastructure that is suited to the needs of the organisation, satisfies the need to achieve best value in everything Sovereign do and provides the management team with the peace of mind that allows them to concentrate on running the business.

“We wanted to deal with a company that would deliver the best value package for our needs”
Dudley Spicer, Sovereign Housing Group

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With some 330 staff operating from locations across Dorset and Southern Somerset, The Wessex Autisitic Society provides essential support for people with Autism, thier carers and families.

Background
The Society has a team of mobile staff, or Service Users, who operate throughout the Dorset and South Somerset region supporting events and running a variety of activities, often in remote countryside locations. Each has a mobile phone or Blackberry provided by the Society, enabling them to stay in contact with colleagues, the Central Support Base in Christchurch, and the other Society offi ces. A number of on-call managers have the same arrangement. In addition, the Society’s offi ces and establishments have land-line connections, making and recieving high volumes of phone calls every day. Costs of The Society’s communications can be considerable.

The Issues
As is the case with Charities, there is a constant need to keep costs down and The Society keeps a strong focus on value-for-money. Having established a favoured mobile network with good coverage and good landline connection service, the next step was to reduce the running costs and at the same time receive good customer support.

The Answer
Southern Communications now provide a combined service for both the mobile fl eet and landline connections. With access to all major mobile and fi xed line networks, they retained the quality of connections The Society was used to. Service levels were improved with thier friendly in-house support team. Kevin Metcraft was involved with the decision to move over to Southern Communications, and was quickly on fi rst-name terms with the staff. “Service from them is excellent. Whenever we ask for something, we get a good response and it get’s done promptly”. On top of improving service, Southern Comms ensured The Society had the lowest possible call and line rental rates to reduce phone bills.

The Future
The Society continues to develop it’s services, which are in ever-increasing demand as awareness of Autism grows. Communicating has become a never-ending project and it’s costs and support are under constant review. Recent investment in data networking will ensure that mobile staff can reach each other in the future using both voice and data, and the convergence of the two technologies, known as VoIP is just around the corner.

Southern Communications’ access to multiple network providers allows it to be fl exible and reduce
costs with market trend, which are passed on to all of it’s customers. The Society will therefore benefi t from rate reductions as time progresses, without detriment to service or value.

When the time comes to harness VoIP and internet telephony, widely regarded as the next thing in telecoms, The Society’s data infrastructure will be the perfect platform for the telephony on offer from Southern Communications.

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The Alpha Plus Group was founded in 1931 and comprises eighteen independent educational establishments catering for over 3,000 pupils. The schools and colleges within the group have developed a longstanding reputation for delivering premium quality education. Each centre retains is own identity, with the Heads and Principals afforded significant management authority, but with the benefits of financial security, camaraderie and opportunities for sharing best practice by belonging to one of the country's leading educational groups. Alpha Plus uses Southern Communications for all of its calls and lines in conjunction with the SpliceCom Maximiser phone system. The result has seen telecom costs reduced whilst delivering an improved group infrastructure.

Background
The last five years has seen the group grow considerably, doubling in size through organic expansion and through the acquisition of other educational centres. The group structure enables a core team to provide essential support and infrastructure management, leaving the individual Heads and Principles free to concentrate on delivering the group’s educational services.

The Issues
Numerous issues caused Alpha to begin researching alternatives to the Group’s ageing telecoms systems. Firstly, the steady growth of the group meant there was over 100 different lines that were “costing a fortune and difficult to manage” says Facilities Manager, Alan Holden. This, coupled with the surge in mobile ownership by parents had caused an increase in the amount of telecoms activity and spend. Individual schools and colleges were increasingly communicating with Head Office and other centres as well as responding to the need from parents to keep in better contact regarding the pupils. Many of the schools within the Group were also using systems that were not only old but in some cases, completely obsolete - causing issues as repairs were either costly or simply not possible. In addition, the growth of Alpha’s own data network and the trend for convergence between data and telecoms systems provided the opportunity to switch to a modern solution that would allow Alpha to take advantage of technologies such as VoIP to create a low cost group-wide telecom/data network. Finally, the ongoing frustration in dealing with the existing telecom provider was enough for Alan to begin seeking a more cost effective and reliable phone system that was easier to manage.

The Answer
Having made the decision to use IP technology within the phone system, a period of initial research enabled Alan to identify possible solutions, with the SpliceCom Maximiser system provided by Southern Communications quickly emerging as best suited to their needs. “Other systems proved to be too expensive and unsuited to the level of traffic we required” says Alan, “we’re not a commercial business that’s making calls all the time - the SpliceCom system would allow us to cost effectively install a system that would deliver the same benefits but on a smaller scale.” Alan then began following up references to test the company’s credentials. “We were pleased to see that Southern Communications had a proven track record in dealing with schools meaning they were used
to the peculiarities of working in this sector!” says Alan. Following initial discussions, Alan quickly made the decision to move forward with Southern Communications. “We found them to be very positive, flexible, adaptable and patient” says Alan. “Everything was handled smoothly and quickly and their fault handling and customer service is very good.”

The Benefits
Since using the SpliceCom Maximiser system, Alpha have begun to enjoy numerous benefits. From a management viewpoint, the system allows problems to be identified and fixed remotely meaning downtime and costs are reduced. “Even if an engineer needs to call - they come prepared with the correct part because the problem has already been identified.” says Alan. Not only this but the system is also incredibly flexible with the whole system working together. “If a line fails we can simply divert calls through other lines across the network and back onto the public network - there’s no downtime or loss in service.” Best of all however, are the cost savings the group have been able to make. “By using the IP network for calls made across the group we don’t incur any costs at all” says Alan.

Since introducing the SpliceCom Maximiser system, Alpha Plus have also switched all of the Groups calls and lines to Southern Communications - helping to realise cost savings of 20-30% across the board together with a system which is able to grow and adjust to the changing needs of the group.

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Portway Domestic Appliances Limited has been serving the independent electrical trade for nearly 20 years. A wholesale supplier of top quality domestic appliances from over 20 major brands, Portway are based in modern offices and warehouse facilities in Andover with nearly 70,000sqft of storage area. Portway’s aim is to offer its customers an unparalleled level of service backed with the most competitive pricing available in today's marketplace. Portway have been a Southern Communications customer for over 10 years beginning with the installation of their first phone system in 1998. Today, Portway use an NEC Aspire system supplied by Southern Communications in addition to a mobile handset account and calls and lines. We spoke to Commercial Director John Bainbridge about their reasons for choosing Southern Communications.

Background
As a sales-driven business in a very competitive market, it is vital that Portway have in place systems that allow their trade customers to contact them quickly and easily at all times. Failure to do so would result in them being unable to provide the customer service required with the subsequent loss of business to their competitors. It is also vital
that the field-based sales staff are fully integrated with the office based team in Andover to ensure an efficient operation.

The Issues
In the late nineties, Portway were experiencing several issues which led it to rethink its telecoms provider. Firstly, as the business grew the costs of its calls and lines began to increase dramatically. The provider at the time was not proactive in identifying cost cutting solutions tailored to the needs of the business, resulting in Portway paying too much for its existing telecoms system. The incumbent was also hard to deal with - being both slow to identify and fix technical issues with the existing systems. This led to frequent down-times in the telecoms infrastructure and Portway customers being unable to contact the sales team. As the company became larger it was clear that the existing infrastructure was unable to cope with both the number and demands of it’s users.

The Answer
The first priority was to control and minimise costs by switching the company’s calls and lines to a cost-effective alternative. Southern Communications were quickly identified as the preferred supplier due to its ability to provide “a more personal service whilst providing cost savings on both our line rentals and calls” says John Bainbridge, Operations Director at Portway. The next step was to look at the phone systems themselves and how the reliability
could be improved to create a new infrastructure that could adapt to the ever-changing needs of the business. John comments“Southern Communications were extremely helpful - they quickly assessed our needs and identified
a system that was best-suited to our requirements.” The original system was upgraded in 2004 to an NEC Aspire as Portway continued to demand more and more from its telecoms infrastructure. Not only did this promise to be a more robust but also allowed Portway to better integrate their field-based teams with the head office in Andover by allowing remote staff to access office features such as voicemail. Since installation the NEC system has delivered “fantastic reliability” enabling Portway to offer its customers a much greater level of customer service through fast
turnaround of enquiries and orders. In addition, the new system has grown with the business, adding more users whilst converging the company’s voice and data networks in order to reduce charges.

The Benefits
Portway say that the benefits to the business have been huge since switching to Southern Communications. “We’ve reduced our calls and lines costs by an average of 30%” says John, “and the robustness, flexibility and expandability of the NEC Aspire system has really paid dividends” he claims. With down-time now virtually “non-existent” the management team are able to concentrate on the business and delivering customers with an unparalleled customer service. The benefits also extend to staff who, despite being based out in the field, are able to operate as a single unit and feel part of the head office team. In fact, Portway has been so impressed with the service provided that they have since moved the company’s mobile account to Southern Communications in addition to installing an array of system handsets, headsets and call loggers. John concludes “they really understand the needs of our business and simply take care of everything for us - leaving us to focus on our customers.”

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