Project Description
Hosted Telephony, SIP Trunk & Contact Centre Case Study
PATRONA INSURANCE
LARGE NI UTILITY COMPANY
ACETECH VEHICLE INTELLIGENCE
NOLAN TRANSPORT
AT A GLANCE
Industry/s
- Large Utility, Manufacturing, Insurance & Transport
Goals
- To deliver Hosted Telephony, SIP Trunk & Contact Centre Technology for our clients based in Ireland and around Europe and the U.S
Solution
- Designed, project managed and delivered best-in-class IPT, contact centre, hosted telephony and data infrastructure solutions
Benefits
- Clients internal KPI’s achieved due to an increase in end user customer satisfaction.
Full secure infrastructure for business critical operations and holding of customer data
Projects all delivered on time and on budget with the minimum disruption to their operations.
Ongoing 24/7 support and maintenance for our clients
Connectivity, innovation and flexibility for our clients through hosted telephony and contact centre technology.
VEI Global has extensive experience in delivering critical enterprise IPT solutions to public and private sector organisations throughout the Ireland, the EU and the U.S. We help businesses achieve their competitive edge by advancing their use of communications technology. The past eighteen months has changed how organisations of all size and in all sectors, work, forever. As the pandemic spread globally, businesses were forced to adapt quickly to remote working, whilst still retaining an enterprise-class IT solution that would support employees working both internally and those now working from home.
Over the years, our team have developed extensive skillsets with multiple telecom providers and considerable integration experience with UC&C platforms including Microsoft Teams and SFB. VEI’s Cloud platform gives organisations of all sizes affordable, flexible access to the latest Enterprise-Class tools. All of these technologies are backed up with a 24/7 support helpdesk, which is matched with each client’s requirements to include proactive monitoring, managed support services & onsite resources.
Recent Case Studies
For more than ten years we have been at the forefront of Hosted Telephony, SIP Trunk & Contact Centre Technology. Recently we have been working with companies such as Nolan Transport, Patrona insurance, Acetech Vehicle Intelligence and a large Northern Irish Utility company; helping them to deliver innovative, secure, scalable & flexible on-site and remote working platforms for their contact centre teams.
Large Northern Irish Utility Project
Our client connects over 250,000 households and businesses to their energy supply. In early 2020, they made the decision that the business required a more flexible and robust solution that would also allow for the move to SIP trunks and offer staff the flexibility to work remotely if required. As a regulated utilities operation, they also needed to continue with its provision of a 24/7 emergency response.
VEI proposed and has now completed deployment of a private cloud hosted Asterisk PBX. The hosted, open standards based PBX is based on the robust Asterisk call processor with Sangoma front end administrative GUI. VEI host the infrastructure in ISO27001 certified data centres. As part of the solution, the customer moved away from the more expensive iSDN trunks to 120 SIP trunks with a call bundle from Vodafone.
Solution driven for maximum success
The system is fully web administered and operated. Contact centre agents can utilize either a hard phone or a WebRTC browser based phone inbuilt into the agent desktop.
Security, integrity and reliability are key issues for our client, given the nature of their business and the fact that they are holding the data of thousands of end-customers. Rigorous testing and built-in security update notifications ensure the reliability and security of the PBX.
The solution is scalable and flexible and is compatible with most hardware and virtual environments. The PBX can scale to meet the customer’s growing needs on a budget. The solution has the ability to integrate with O365 suite.
A 50 seat contact centre was a key requirement for our client, offering call routing functionality and call statistics data. Calls are answered initially by a simple front end auto attendant and are then routed through to a contact centre agent. VEI has initially supplied SIP handsets with headset capability and Jabra headsets. The customer chose a 5 year support contract which covers a help desk and all ongoing hosting charges. the robust solution deployed is fully compliant with all requirements asked for within the customer’s tender. This highly secure solution was delivered in a phased approach in order to limit any operational disruption and the project was delivered on time and within budget.
Acetech Vehicle Intelligence
Acetech Vehicle Intelligence is a global manufacturer of vehicle intelligence for emergency service fleets. The company opened a new site in Tullamore, Co Offaly and VEI Global was selected to implement a new, fast and resilient voice and data network into Acetech’s new premises.
VEI Global designed, project managed and delivered a complete voice and data infrastructure solution based on a mixture of Aruba 2980 48 port networking switches all connected with 10GB fibre links with a Firewall and Aruba WiFi access points for the customer’s data infrastructure and an Asterisk PBX to support the voice traffic. VEI set up separate VLANs for Data, WiFi and Voice.
Solution driven for maximum success
The solution comprises a cloud-managed network powered by Aruba Central. This allows central configuration management of the wireless and wired network through a web browser. The solution is fully multi-tenant capable allowing the on boarding of additional tenants with completely separate network configuration and monitoring/reporting access through a portal. All Firewall rules and Routing requirements installed continue to be managed by VEI.
The new PBX supporting the customer voice traffic is based on Asterisk and delivered as a Yeastar S100 appliance. This hardware appliance supports up to 200 extensions and 60 concurrent calls using either ISDN or SIP or both for added assurance. All users have voicemail as standard and they also have their own direct dial number. Each user has their email address added for Voicemail to Email support – This sends the voicemail as a WAV attachment to the users email address.
The phones/soft clients register with the PBX using SIP and can be used from anywhere within the local area network or remotely via VPN. The PBX, has as standard IVR, Queue, Voicemail and Call Recording (to external storage) for all users. The system has a built in, secure Cloud managed soft phone solution for remote users. A major benefit of this application is that the handshake between device and PBX is done in the cloud so there is no need for any changes on the customer’s Firewall. This gives access to the users from an internet connection without the security risk normally associated with remote users.
Acetech also requested VEI Global to install a Yealink IP video conferencing unit for its board room that can facilitate meetings for up to 20 people. The solution was fully designed and delivered by VEI Global. The full installation including configuration off site and deployment onsite with full staff training was delivered to the customer on time and budget. VEI provide standard care support from 0900 hours to 1800 hours weekdays. Due to the satisfaction of the initial deployment, the customer is now adding to a further building with additional switches and devices.
Patrona Insurance
Patrona Underwriting Limited is a dynamic and flexible underwriting agency based in Ireland. The company provides tailored insurance products to the Irish market exclusively through a network of brokers. Personal interaction with its customer base is a key feature of Patrona’s broker relationships and exceptional service and support to their customers is of key importance.
VEI Global has had a close working relationship with Patrona Underwriting since we were awarded the contract to provide a hosted voice and contact centre solution 5 years ago.
Solution driven for maximum success
VEI deployed a private cloud hosted Asterisk PBX to Patrona. The hosted, open standards based PBX is based on the robust Asterisk call processor with Sangoma front end administrative GUI. VEI host the infrastructure in ISO27001 certified data centres. The PBX is responsible for call handling, IVR, contact centre queue and voicemail needs as applicable. The PBX is sized for 120 concurrent call legs with up to 1000 extensions. All voice call centre routing requirements are met by the queue application within Asterisk and a statistics and monitoring application from Asternic provides all of the call centre statistics. A contact centre for 80 agents was a key requirement for Patrona offering call routing functionality and call statistics data. Calls are answered initially by a simple front end auto attendant and are then routed through to a contact centre agent.
PCI compliant call recording with start/stop options for the contact centre agents is achieved by using an external total recorder with Open API. The system is fully web administered and operated. Contact centre agents utilize a hard phone and FOP2 client to connect to the connect centre.
Security, integrity and reliability are key issues for Patrona given the nature if its business and its data holding of thousands of customers. Rigorous testing and built-in security update notifications ensure the reliability and security of the PBX.
The solution delivered is scalable and flexible and is compatible with most hardware and virtual environments. The PBX has a browser-based GUI interface which facilitates easy system changes and maintenance. The solution has the ability to integrate with O365 suite and VEI was chosen to integrate the customer’s solution into MS Teams. This was achieved with the installation of a session border controller to provide the integration from the PBX to the back office users who used teams.
Patrona’s Integration with Microsoft Teams
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/21 has shown how businesses can come to rely on robust and remote communications. With so many people working from home, the deployment of communications and collaboration tools becomes a critical aspect of operations. It can also come with a few challenges, particularly when it comes to connectivity.
Patrona, like a lot of businesses has had to adapt to remote working but still retain an enterprise-class solution that supports employees working from home. Microsoft platform technologies are at the core of most operations for businesses today offering access to instant conference calls, collaboration and document sharing without compromising security. This is a radical change from the onsite office environment. However, one of the most common forms of communication between employees and external businesses is still the traditional phone. Patrona’s business is highly reliant on personal phone contact with its customers. VEI worked with Patrona to successfully integrate their existing telephony infrastructure with MS Teams, meaning that internal and external calls can be placed at any time and from any location. Integrating their phone system with MS Teams offered Patrona huge benefits:
- All their communications and collaboration tools within one window view
- Ability to have conference calls remotely for Team meetings.
- Offered cost savings
Is ideal for remote and home workers on any device, desktop computer, mobile device, iPad and with a compatible inexpensive headset.
Challenges such as the quality of the network connection are important and VEI was able to advise and assist on all recommendations needed here.
Patrona’s project to integrate its phone system was made easier by having a highly skilled team to do it with them. VEI Global took care of multiple aspects of the deployment for them, evaluating their current needs and ultimately providing Patrona with a single platform for all its communications and collaboration. This left Patrona time to focus on what mattered most—its attention to its customers and its business growth.
“We enhanced Nolan Transport’s existing contact-centre/platform capabilities through customisation of our solution and integration to their end user services.”
Jane O’Doherty – VEI Global
An IPT Communications solution for every industry
VEI Global specialise in the delivery of IT and Telecoms solutions including; Wi-Fi, LAN/WAN/SD WAN, IPT, Contact Centre, UC&C, Circuit Connectivity. Our clients include some of the largest Global Service Providers and Systems Integrators. We have completed Digital Transformation and Network upgrade Projects for some of the most recognised brands in the world.
Working with clients such as Nolan Transport, Patrona Insurance, ACETECH and large utility companies has allowed our experienced IPT team to develop extensive skillsets with multiple telecom providers and considerable integration experience with UC&C platforms including Microsoft Teams and SFB.
VEI Global can provide customers with high-speed, low cost internet circuits and telephony services in Ireland, in Europe and in the USA, taking care of all your network project connectivity requirements.
ABOUT VEI GLOBAL
Who We Are – VEI Global is a market leader in providing innovative technology services and support solutions. We excel in delivering multi-site IT deployment projects across all sectors around the globe. Our focus is on providing the best support service capabilities, all requests are managed 24/7. We can handle any ICT challenges and are experts in networks, logistics, infrastructure and service delivery.
A highly skilled and experienced IT team such as VEI can support businesses with all aspects of IT infrastructure projects, from reviewing your requirements, identifying the right solutions to suit your requirements and budget, right through to deployment and ongoing systems maintenance. This leaves you free to focus on what matters most—your business operations and business growth.