Tayside Fire and Rescue

Rescue Workers Reduce Costs and Improve Processes with Unified Communications

Tayside Fire and Rescue provides emergency services to 400,000 people in Scotland. The organization spends most of its budget on its people and equipment—with only a small percentage available for information communications technology (ICT). Although employees used e-mail and the telephone to communicate, the organization did not have voice mail. In addition, high PBX support costs significantly affected the ICT budget. In 2007, Tayside Fire and Rescue took control of its telephony and deployed a unified communications solution built on Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. As a result of its solution, the organization is raising the competency of its firefighters, accelerating communications, facilitating mobility, providing voice mail, and reducing costs through increased operational control.

Situation

With Office Communications Server 2007, we can broadcast training sessions…. As a result, we’ll be able to provide more training, which will raise the competency level of our firefighters.  Gary Bellfield Manager of Information and Communications Technology Tayside Fire and Rescue

Tayside Fire and Rescue is one of eight fire authorities in Scotland. Headquartered in Dundee, the organization provides emergency services to 400,000 people in a 7,000-square-kilometer area in the heart of Scotland. Tayside Fire and Rescue employs 750 people, who work out of 24 fire stations. Six stations are staffed by employees 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, while a mixture of retained and volunteer personnel operate the other 18 locations. At any given time, approximately 300 people are on active duty.

Employees rely on phones and e-mail—supported by two clustered server computers that run Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition—to communicate. Employees access e-mail by using a thin-client device that runs the Windows® XP Professional operating system and the Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 messaging and collaboration client. Senior officers can also access the environment by using a smart phone or a Sony VAIO portable computer that runs Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access.

The organization’s Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system and mobile-phone plan provided only basic phone service. “The fact that we didn’t have voice mail was an issue for us, but we were unable to justify spending tens of thousands of pounds for it,” explains Gary Bellfield, Manager of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) at Tayside Fire and Rescue.

Another issue was that the organization had to hire a consultant to make any changes to the PBX system. “The last time we wanted to implement a single analog extension in one of our fire stations, we spent more than £4,500,” Bellfield says. “That’s U.S.$9,000. We didn’t want to continue investing our resources in a PBX system that wasn’t giving us value for our money.”

Rather than replacing its existing PBX solution with a new one, Tayside Fire and Rescue tracked emerging IT solutions including unified messaging. “We desperately wanted to have a unified messaging system before today,” says Bellfield. “But being a local government organization, we could never justify the kind of monies that were required to deploy the solutions we evaluated over the last four years.”

Solution

In November 2006, Tayside Fire and Rescue learned about Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Exchange Server 2007 with unified messaging delivers voice mail and e-mail that users can manage from an Office Outlook inbox or from a telephone. Office Communications Server 2007 provides the ability to make calls using voice over IP (VoIP). It also offers audio and video conferencing, instant messaging (IM) inside the organization, instant messaging outside the organization through federation, and color-coded presence icons. These icons—which appear next to users’ names in Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and in all other Microsoft Office applications—indicate people’s availability status. By clicking an icon, a user can see the person’s contact information and preferred method of contact—such as IM, e-mail, or phone.

We saw a massive opportunity with Office Communications Server 2007 to take real control of our telephony. With it, we could add new users to the phone system in minutes rather than weeks.  Gary Bellfield Manager of Information and Communications Technology Tayside Fire and Rescue

Tayside Fire and Rescue recognized that with a solution based on Microsoft unified communications technology, the organization would be able to provide much more than just voice mail. Explains Bellfield, “We saw a massive opportunity with Office Communications Server 2007 to take real control of our telephony. With it, we could add new users to the phone system in minutes rather than weeks. And we’d be able to avoid the astronomical costs associated with our PBX system, because we already had most of the skills that we needed to manage a Microsoft solution.”

In March 2007, Tayside Fire ICT engineers installed Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise Edition on a single HP ProLiant ML370 G5 server computer running the Windows Server® 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition operating system. “All of the server roles we’re using in Exchange Server—Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, and Unified Messaging—are currently on one server computer in our data center,” notes Steve Hutchinson, ICT Support Engineer at Tayside Fire and Rescue.

In that same month, the organization engaged POST cti, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to help set up the unified messaging environment. A team of engineers from POST cti and from Tayside Fire and Rescue configured a Dialogic® DMG2030DTI Media Gateway to facilitate communication between the PBX system and the unified messaging server. Dialogic offers a range of enterprise-class media gateway products to support Microsoft unified communications solutions. Dialogic media gateways are designed for simplicity, PBX interoperability, and price performance—and they are backed by a worldwide distribution and support organization.

The ICT team initially set up 65 unified messaging mailboxes and will migrate the remaining 685 mailboxes over the next few months.

In April 2007, the team installed Office Communications Server 2007 on another HP ProLiant server computer that runs Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition. The engineers deployed two additional HP ProLiant ML370 G5 server computers running the Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition operating system. One server computer hosts the Mediation Server role that facilitates communication between Office Communications Server 2007 and the Dialogic Media Gateway. The gateway, in turn, communicates with the organization’s PBX system. The team set up the other server computer in the perimeter network to support the Access Edge Server, Audio/Video Edge Server, and Web Conferencing Edge Server roles. These servers support features such as remote user connectivity, IM, and multimedia conferences.

After engineers installed Office Communicator 2007 on portable computers and five servers running Citrix Presentation Server, employees were issued a VoIP device. The device was either an LG-Nortel IP Phone 8540, which resembles a standard desk phone, or the LG-Nortel USB Phone 8501 handset. In addition, some users were issued various models of headsets including the Jabra GN2000 USB headset and the Jabra GN9350 wireless headset.

Three managers were also issued Palm® Treo™ Smartphones to help facilitate remote access through Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile. Palm Treo smartphones deliver rich, intuitive, and seamless communication capabilities that enhance productivity and collaboration by streamlining how people communicate. Palm Treo smartphones connect directly with Exchange Server 2007 to deliver access to wireless voice, e-mail, the Web, and Microsoft Office Mobile applications—while minimizing total cost of ownership.

Today, all Tayside employees use Office Communications Server 2007 to access presence and IM features, but not everyone has access to the VoIP and video features at this time. The organization expects the solution to be fully deployed by the end of March 2008 as part of an ongoing technology refresh program to replace all existing thin clients with ultra-small-form-factor personal computers.

Benefits

As a result of its unified communications solution, Tayside Fire and Rescue is raising the competency of its firefighters, accelerating communications, facilitating mobility, providing voice mail, and reducing costs through increased operational control.

Previously, if I was going to work in another location, I would have to use an alternative telephone extension. With Office Communications Server 2007, my telephone number remains the same regardless of where I am.  Gary Bellfield Manager of Information and Communications Technology Tayside Fire and Rescue

Raising the Competency of Firefighters

Tayside firefighters spend approximately 70 percent of their shift at a fire station. Much of this time is spent in training. In the past, Tayside officers traveled to fire stations to conduct training sessions. However, the organization is now developing an online training program. “With Office Communications Server 2007, we can broadcast training sessions to multiple stations so that trainers don’t have to drive two or three hours to get to their destination,” explains Bellfield. “As a result, we’ll be able to provide more training, which will raise the competency level of our firefighters.”

In addition, features in Office Communications Server 2007 give trainers the ability to record sessions and store them on a Windows SharePoint® Services site. “We hope to use Office Communications Server 2007 to create a catalog of training videos,” continues Bellfield. “If certain firefighters have not yet responded to a specific kind of incident, they can review a training session about that type of situation when it is convenient.” In addition, Tayside Fire and Rescue plans to share its training videos with other rescue organizations.

Accelerating Communications

Office Communications Server 2007 makes it possible for employees to know, at a glance, the availability of other employees and how they want to be contacted. “We used to spend countless hours chasing down individuals to try to contact them, but with Office Communications Server 2007 there is no longer a need to do that,” notes Bellfield. “With presence in Office Communicator 2007, you can see clearly when people are available, on vacation, or in a meeting. We’ve seen a lot of efficiency gains from being able to do this.”

Tayside Fire and Rescue has also realized collaborative benefits by federating with other organizations that use Office Communications Server 2007. By doing so, Tayside Fire and Rescue establishes a trust with the other organizations so that employees can exchange instant messages, make toll-free VoIP calls to each other, participate in video conferences, and share applications. Bellfield explains, “Federating with other companies has helped in our deployment of Office Communications Server 2007. Regardless of where people are, we’ve been able to contact them and get quick answers to technical questions. We’re also discussing the possibility of federating with the other fire and police authorities in Scotland and the United Kingdom that are interested in Office Communications Server 2007.”

The ability to conduct audio or multimedia Web conferences has also significantly improved communications. “We used to struggle to get everyone who was working on a project together in one place to meet,” Bellfield notes. “With Office Communications Server 2007, there is no reason to be in the same physical location. We can join a conference from any end point.”

Facilitating Mobility

The highly mobile employees at Tayside Fire and Rescue appreciate the ability to manage voice mail and e-mail from an Outlook 2007 inbox or from a telephone. “The feature that I think is brilliant within Exchange Server is Outlook Voice Access,” says Bellfield. “Having seen so many different voice-activated systems and features over the years, I’m really rather skeptical about how good they are. The voice-activation system in Exchange Server 2007 is the best I’ve used.”

In addition, employees can access the Office Communications Server 2007 features, including presence and VoIP, from any location as long as they have a computer that has Office Communicator 2007 and Internet access. “Previously, if I was going to work in another location, I would have to use an alternative telephone extension,” says Bellfield. “With Office Communications Server 2007, my telephone number remains the same regardless of where I am. This is really a fantastic feature because it means that where I happen to be when I pick up a call is really irrelevant.”

Extending IT Investments to Deliver Voice Mail

With Exchange Server 2007, Tayside Fire and Rescue has been able to provide voice mail and to deploy VoIP without replacing its existing PBX system or subscribing to third-party services.

“One unified messaging solution we looked at required us to rip out £20,000 of equipment just to replace it with another £20,000 solution,” Bellfield says. “Our entire implementation of unified messaging through Exchange Server 2007 is costing less than 10 percent of previous proposals. And we gain other features that we couldn’t get with a standard voice-mail system, like presence information and voice access to e-mail messages.”

Reducing Costs Through Operational Control

The ability to control the unified communications environments from a single, familiar administrative console has numerous advantages over other offerings. “I expect that with Office Communications Server 2007 we’ll be able to reduce ongoing IT costs because we’ll no longer have to rely on third parties to make changes to our PBX system,” explains Bellfield. “It used to take up to one month to have simple changes made. Now we can make the changes ourselves.”

Another area of savings will be phone costs. Rather than using PBX or mobile phones, employees can make toll-free calls from their thin-client devices or portable computers by using the VoIP capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007. These capabilities will be especially relevant when employees work from home, are on the road, or when they make calls to federated businesses. “Hopefully over time, we’ll be able to reduce phone costs by 10 percent,” concludes Bellfield.

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about POST cti products and services, call +44 (0)8701266633 or visit the Web site at:
www.postcti.com

For more information about Tayside Fire and Rescue products and services, call +44 (0)1382 322222 or visit the Web site at:
www.taysidefire.gov.uk

Microsoft Office System

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Document published October 2007