The solution and the benefits

The solution

BGU chose a 3 year contract for cloud based telephony with Maintel using the RingCentral platform, and Maintel helped reduce 450 individual lines on the former Unify system down to 200 users with an additional 40 refuge devices such as support phones in corridors, emergency care lines in lifts.

Now that telephony is no longer desk dependent, it can be used from anywhere across multiple devices, and users were given a windows based laptop, docking station and headphones.

The RingCentral platform delivered several advanced features including call routing, interactive voice response (IVR) and call queues. Additionally, automated reporting allows for the monitoring of call quality, usage, device status, and more.

The extended business rollout was supported by the university’s 30 initial RingCentral users, who had become advocates for the new system’s advanced capabilities.

“The implementation of the new RingCentral cloud-based telephony platform by Maintel has been a real game changer for Bishop Grosseteste University.”

Greg Stonehouse, Chief Technology Officer, Bishop Grosseteste University

The Benefits

Reliability: Calls no longer drop or fail to connect, allowing staff and students to maintain close communication and ensuring that the busy confirmation and clearing period runs smoothly.

Usability: University staff have found the simple phone system to be extremely user friendly. Removing legacy handsets from desktops has given the workforce the flexibility to use their telephony anywhere and across multiple devices supporting agile working practices.

Reporting & Analytics: The team can monitor who is making and receiving high volumes of calls, and study analytics for the critical confirmation and clearing period. This allows them to ensure adequate staff coverage and adjust their telephony requirements more accurately.

Security: Maintel integration of the new RingCentral platform has allowed BGU to take advantage of other services including Azure single sign-on and multi-factor authentication to wrap a higher level of security around the user base. The RingCentral platform has also flagged and blocked fraudulent international phone numbers against a control list, which may have prevented financial or data loss.

Management: The IT team are now able to manage the service and make changes from anywhere, at any time. Having been administering the platform for a year and a half, there is so far nothing that their complex business hasn’t been able to accommodate within the RingCentral platform.

Cost Savings: As a direct result of moving to cloud-based telephony, BGU have reduced their dependence on business-provided mobile phones by 60%+

“The support, advice and implementation of the new RingCentral solution by Maintel has enabled us to meet the needs of our key stakeholders, staff and students more effectively and efficiently!”

Greg Stonehouse, Chief Technology Officer, Bishop Grosseteste University

The Future

Moving forward, the university is planning to undertake a network infrastructure review, as they may be able to reduce their network hardware switch capacity.

When the 3 year contract comes up for renewal, they are confident that the reporting capabilities of the new system will provide a clearer roadmap of the new technologies they may wish to invest in for the future, and further reduce their need for mobile telephony.

“Having good quality data helps inform good quality business decisions, something that is essential for our future business.”

Greg Stonehouse, Chief Technology Officer, Bishop Grosseteste University