Interskill Learning

Future proof communications through migration to IP Telephony

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Established in 1991, with offices in the United States and Europe, Interskill Learning is a pioneer in e-Learning, and is now synonymous with Mainframe education of the highest quality and currency.

Interskill Learning are acknowledged as the worldwide leader in the provision of Mainframe education solutions, and boast a client base of over 1,500 companies, including over 60% of the Fortune 100, helping train and re-skill IT professionals in the very latest technology.

Their education solution is used by some of the world's largest financial corporations including HSBC, Citigroup, ING, Bank of America, HBOS, AIB, and Norwich Union.

Requirements & Objectives

Interskill Learning were previously using an INDeX system which was becoming old, obsolete and not in line with their vision for the future.

Interskill Learning were moving offices and although they could have moved their INDeX system with them, a number of issues had been identified with the system and a completely new system seemed the best answer.

Interskill Learning have a small office with only half a dozen users taking inbound and making outbound sales calls, so the scale of the solution was crucial. They considered the price per head and the probable longevity of a new proposed system, and believed the move to IP Telephony was the answer.

Interskill Learning had a good idea of what the system would do in principle, but were not sure what would happen in practice. They commented that they always prefer a low maintenance well behaved, reliable system.

The Solution

A detailed review of Interskill Learning's specific requirements was undertaken by their dedicated Britannic Technologies Account Manager, helping suggest which solution would best fit their needs.

After much discussion and review of their current communication requirements and spend, the Avaya IP500 solution was chosen to best fit these.

The Avaya Solution was very quick and straight forward to implement, taking place over a three day period. The changeover happened outside of working hours so there was minimum disruption to staff and normal business practices.

The Avaya solution chosen uses a combination of Avaya 5410 and 5402 handsets, these give the users a number of useful features.

These new features include conferencing, full-duplex speakerphone, redial, transfer, hold, mute, message waiting indicator, noise cancelling microphone for busy office environments, call logging and speed dial directory.

Britannic also maintain Interskill Learning's line rentals and introduced Least Cost Routing (LCR). LCR routes their calls through the most cost effective routes on a number of leading Tier 1 Carriers. By introducing LCR Interskill Learning will reduce the costs of their outbound calls by a projected 10%.

Interskill Learning felt that the combination of technology offered and price was simply better than the alternatives currently on the market. They had investigated two other companies' products and solutions, with Britannic's solution fitting their requirements perfectly and within their budget.

Through Britannic Technologies 1 day training programme, the Interskill Learning sales staff were very impressed in terms of all the new features and benefits the solution would provided them.

"We are not a fast growing business, but communications is central to our operation. Without it we would fail."

Brett Wilson, IT Manager, Interskill Learning

Benefits

The new Avaya IP Office system offers their sales team a number of new useful features available through their handsets. The new features make it easier for them to transfer calls, conference colleagues in, also helping increase productivity and reduce the chance of error through features such as speed dial.

This is a very scalable solution and can grow with the demands of the company. This is in line with their future plans, as there is a possibility that Interskill Learning will introduce a new none UK based sales staff supporting their UK offices, as they grow organically.

So scaling this solution over international boundaries and to their international office based locations has been discussed.

Other noticeable benefits include cost savings due to the line rental and LCR from Britannic, which allow additional monies to be put into other areas of the company to stimulate growth.

Britannic Technologies provide ongoing support, advice and partnership, helping future proofing Interskill Learning's communication's whilst being inline with their business objectives.

"We always prefer a low maintenance well behaved system,
(which is what we got)."

Brett Wilson, IT Manager, Interskill Learning