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www.binfo.co.uk
Originally the Royal Mail Engineering
& Construction division of The Post
Office, Romec was created in 1989
to provide facilities and engineering-
related services to the Royal Mail
Group. In 2000, it was launched as a
fully-fledged facilities management
company and now manages more
than 25,000 sites and employs
4,500 people at multiple locations
throughout the UK.
Romec prides itself on delivering a
highly efficient service, so when the circuit-
switched system used in its Warrington,
Leeds and Stockport offices began to buckle
under the strain of handling 4,000 service
calls a day, the information services (IS)
management team seized the opportunity
to invest in a new phone system for the 200
call centre agents and 50 managers and
support staff based in the three sites.
“At Romec we manage all the service
elements of a facility, including intruder
alarms, power, gas, water, air conditioning,
in fact anything that involves the smooth
running of an operation,” explains
IS Services Manager Stuart Keating.
“Typically when an alarm or call comes in,
the operator needs to know what takes
priority so they can take the necessary
steps to handle it. This may involve calling
a facility manager, a sub-contractor or, in
the case of an intruder alarm, the relevant
key-holder. It is important that the call is
answered promptly by operators who have
the necessary skill set; and, if they are not
available, the call needs to be automatically
routed to the next person in the group.
“Furthermore, it is essential that if for
any reason we have a power cut or any
other infrastructure failure at any of our
sites, the system can route calls to a back-
up facility. Business continuity is critical to
both ours and our clients’ operations.”
A phone system upgrade also gave
Keating the opportunity to specify features
that weren't available on the old system.
“To improve efficiency we needed new
functionality such as on-line presence,
so we could immediately see from any
location who is logged on and who is
not. We also wanted support for remote
working, so operators could be based
in any location; complete call integrity
between all three sites for disaster recovery
purposes; and simple to use call recording
for training and dispute resolution.”
System requirements
In its Statement Of Requirements (SOR)
document, Romec specified the following
features:
n
A flexible and robust 250+ user system
that could operate over multiple sites;
n
Easy configurability by Romec’s
own staff;
n
Upgradeability to accommodate new
users;
n
Built-in disaster recovery and business
continuity;
n
Enhanced remote working using home-
based internet connectivity;
n
Sophisticated call scripting;
n
Detailed call analysis; and
n
Integrated call recording.
The choice
Romec evaluated a number of systems
before finally selecting a SwyxWare
software-based unified communications
solution from Swyx reseller GPNS.
“We were very impressed by the
SwyxWare solution and the knowledge
GPNS demonstrated about our business
requirements,” explains Keating. “The
software was feature-rich, future-proof and
extremely flexible and could be deployed on
our existing infrastructure and supported by
our own in-house staff, negating the need
to rely on third-party contractors. We really
like the licensing model as this would allow
us to grow our call centres incrementally
without major capital costs or disruption to
our operation.”
The new system was implemented
in a phased roll-out starting with the
Warrington offices, followed by Leeds and
then Stockport.
The benefits
Among the major benefits already
experienced are the ability to:
•
deploy agents flexibly to accommodate
the peaks and troughs in call volumes;
•
route calls according to the time of day
i.e. switching calls from Warrington to
the 24/7 call centre in Leeds outside
office hours;
•
integrate the company phone book so
staff can ‘click-to-dial’ sub-contractors,
facilities managers, key-holders etc.;
•
use Presence to see instantly who is
active, who is busy and who is free;
•
create sophisticated scripts to ensure
agents follow the correct procedure for
each alarm/call;
•
reduce call and travel costs by enabling
managers to work from any location
using their lap-tops and soft-phones
instead of mobiles;
•
use the built-in conference call facility to
cut money spent on outsourced services
by £1,000 a month;
•
integrate a wall board for improved
analysis of call volumes and call
handling; and
•
route calls to different locations and use
SIP trunking to backup main ISDN lines
in case of catastrophic failure.
In addition, GPNS developed a software
‘skin’ for Romec highlighting which alarms/
calls are of highest importance. This has
enabled Romec to draft new operating
procedures to ensure that alarms are dealt
with in order of importance, so that a
reported intrusion, for example, is given
priority over a minor air conditioning fault.
Extended roll-out
Romec is so happy with SwyxWare that it
is now extending it to another five sites
and an additional 200 operators, bringing
the total number of users to 450. It is also
expanding the number of people who work
from home using SwyxWare.
As Keating explains, even those who
had doubts about implementing a ‘pure’
IP based PBX have been won over: “The
SwyxWare system was as far apart from our
old hardware-based system as it is possible
to be, so it wasn’t surprising there were
a few sceptical voices at the start of the
project. However, very quickly the system’s
benefits came to the fore and everyone is
now convinced that the solution is a real
asset to our entire organisation.”
www.swyx.co.uk
Romec transforms call
handling with Swyx
09
Editor’s Choice Awards
Romec
evaluated a
number of
systems before
finally selecting
a SwyxWare
software-
based unified
communications
solutions