University of Cambridge

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Location


Cambridge, UK

Overview


The University identified the need to replace its existing telephony system, which, having been running for 25 years was nearing the end of its useful life. With the need to satisfy over 16,000 telecommunications users, spread across many different sites and buildings, the University’s Joint Telecommunications Management Committee (JTMC) knew that a project of this scale would be challenging.

Highlights


  • The implementation of the largest SIP Telephony solution in Higher Education comprising 16,000 users over 31 Colleges and 170 institutions
  • Strategy ratification, business case development, and translation of vision into project objectives
  • Technical design and system specification based on open standards architecture
  • Management of competitive procurement process and supplier selection
  • Programme and project management of system implementation including regular project reporting
  • Annual savings exceeding £1 million on operating costs
  • Telecoms data cleansed for ease of billing and expense management
  • Additional user functionality, including web-based interfaces for dialing and voicemail access and management
  • System flexibility and ease of management

Summary


PTS independently ratified the University’s telephony replacement strategy, and produce a business case that outlined the tangible project objectives. PTS also managed the procurement and supplier selection, ensuring that the procurement process was fair, with the necessary due diligence conducted at the supplier selection stage.

During the project, the University also moved the Telecoms function from administration into the University Computing Service (UCS), the team needed to manage the transition of people at the same time as the telecoms roll-out.

The three-year IP telephony deployment project has been deemed a great success within the sector and the University of Cambridge now has a future-proof platform and modern facilities that reflect its reputation as one of the world’s greatest centres of learning and research.

“The users at the University of Cambridge realised how challenging the project to deploy a new IP Telephony platform was going to be and have taken to the new system very well really. The handsets have given them everything they expect, and we have also been able to provide some value-added features with the new system, such as the web-based interface for dialing and voicemail. I’m just very pleased to see it finished and I don’t think we could have done it without the help of PTS.”

University of Cambridge Case Study

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