2 page Case Study - Posted 1/14/2009

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Salford City Council

Council Increases Productivity by 35 Per Cent with Unified Communications Solution

Salford City Council is one of 10 Greater Manchester authorities. As part of an initiative to increase staff productivity and efficiencies, it has deployed Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Employees can now use tools such as instant messaging (IM), and video and voice conferencing to enhance collaboration, increase productivity, and improve customer services.

Business Needs

Salford is a district in north-west England that makes up part of Greater Manchester. It is made up of 37 square miles of urban areas, countryside, and waterfront. Salford City Council is responsible for administration of the district. It employs more than 9,500 people and provides local government services to 220,000 citizens.

“While on holiday I broke my leg. I couldn’t drive and commuting was impractical. With Office Communications Server 2007, I could work and communicate with my team from home, keeping my central role.” Jonathan Burt Network and Infrastructure Manager Salford City Council

In recent years, the council has overseen vast improvements in its administration processes. It received three out of four stars in its latest Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), which reflects this change. Building on this achievement, the council has launched an initiative to upgrade its IT infrastructure and promote a flexible working environment.

Jonathan Burt, Network and Infrastructure Manager, Salford City Council, says: “We want our employees to use the latest technology that helps collaboration. Our aim is to increase productivity and efficiency by supporting flexible working, while improving automated processes in the office.”

The council’s existing telephony system consisted of a traditional Mitel switchboard, but transferring calls was a highly inefficient process. For example, employees would mark a whiteboard to let receptionists know they were in the building and available to receive a call. At this time only 50 per cent of calls were successfully received by the intended recipient.

In response, employees would use e-mail extensively, but this was also problematic. Burt says: “We wanted to move away from e-mail and telephony communications because they’re impractical during busy periods. E-mail chains can get too long and voicemails can be confusing. We needed faster responses to queries, providing a better service to our customers.”

Solution

Burt sought to restructure the council’s existing system and met with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and unified communications specialist POSTcti. Adrian Sturdy, Account Manager at POSTcti, says: “Initially, we considered implementing a Cisco Unified Communications suite. But we needed something that could integrate better with other applications that the council uses—such as Microsoft Office Outlook messaging and collaboration client, and the Active Directory service.”

After further discussion and a detailed analysis of other technology options, the council decided to implement Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 as the council’s main communications environment.

Office Communications Server 2007 integrates easily with desktop applications such as the 2007 Microsoft Office system and features Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. This provides council employees with rich enterprise-standard instant messaging and presence services that support easy collaboration. Burt says: “Using presence awareness, we can immediately check the availability of colleagues from our desktops and initiate an IM conversation with the click of a button.”

Exchange Server 2007 helps the council manage a reliable messaging system with built-in protection against spam and viruses, while providing employees with anywhere access to e-mail, voicemail, calendars, and contacts from a wide variety of devices.

In addition, the system has been integrated with the existing telephony system. Office Communications Server 2007 supports Voice over IP (VoIP), which council workers can use to initiate audio and video conferences, and Microsoft Office Live Meetings over the Web. Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile has also been deployed to Windows Mobile® phones on a private 3G network, encouraging remote access. “With this solution we can talk from home using the office network, which is obviously much cheaper and better for employees,” says Burt.

Deployment began in May 2008, with incremental rollout and testing across the council during the remainder of the year. Currently, IM and presence management elements are available to all employees, while video and voice conferencing is being used by the IT department, with plans for deployment to the rest of the council in the coming months.

Benefits

With the adoption of the unified communications solution, the council has seen significant improvements in productivity, collaboration, costs, and customer response times. The council is able to retain employees who would otherwise be unable to work. Burt himself is an example of this. “While on holiday I broke my leg. I couldn’t drive and commuting was impractical. With Office Communications Server 2007, I could work and communicate with my team from home, keeping my central role,” he says. “I can even fully participate in presentations and conferences. Clients and suppliers can connect their personal computers to our servers and use Office Live Meeting to transmit their demos to me at home.”

• Improves customer service. Receptionists can use presence awareness to check the availability of staff. In just one week, successful call handling increased to more than 85 per cent from 50 per cent.
• Increases productivity by supporting flexible working. Employees can use tools such as IM, audio and Web conferencing, and Office Live Meeting to be more productive when working away from the office.
• Reduces overheads and emissions. Employees who were constantly on the move can reduce petrol costs by working remotely, which also improves the council’s green credentials.
• Minimises office space requirements. Council workers can use the solution to work remotely, removing 30 per cent of desk space in the IT department, and 25 per cent in the Audit department, with more planned in other sectors.
• Increases employee retention and enhances collaboration. Employees that aren’t able to travel to the office can easily communicate with team members. Greater job satisfaction reduces staff turnover and the council retains its expertise.

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This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published January 2009