Tenants can save up to 50% by using a leased line for their voice and data communications.

Worton Park

Rural broadband solution

Worton Park is a small office park situated just off the A40 between Oxford and Witney. It is home to a hub of businesses that operate from the restored farm buildings as well as being a successful wedding venue, conference centre and organic farm. The Cotswold stone office suites nestle comfortably between farmland and paddocks and create an unusual and unique office environment, but getting fast enough broadband connectivity to this rural location had become an issue.

Frustrated tenants

Despite being based within easy access of the A40, the broadband connectivity was poor, which was proving to be a disadvantage when encouraging new businesses to re-locate. The attractiveness of the rural setting was offset by connectivity issues and the need to use cloud computing, VoIP, data and voice communications. In addition, existing tenants were becoming frustrated with the slow broadband speeds for everyday business tasks.

Worth the wait?

Despite Oxfordshire County Council signing a £14M deal with BT to provide rural broadband, many areas of the county will still have a 2 year wait and many rural areas are not within the plan. Moreover, there is a concern that the BT provision is in not necessarily the most suitable solution for business use.

Best for business

STL installed a privately funded high capacity fibre optic 100MB leased line with fibre optic cabling infrastructure across the Park. The business grade uncontended bandwidth enables businesses based at Worton Park to run VoIP, SIP trunking, hosted telephony, hosted data applications and cloud computing across high speed internet connections

Living in a data hungry world

In this data hungry world the ability to run cloud computing is a major consideration for businesses when they decide to re-locate. To be based in the country and yet offer faster broadband than many urban areas is a key benefit for rural business parks like Worton. Business park owners split and sell the leased line to their tenants who can save up to 50% by using this type of service for their voice and data communications.

This is a prestigious site for Speedy and STL’s project management and support has been outstanding. The system they have installed makes telephone usage easy for our clients and the management of the billing easy for us.

Speedy

Temporary offices with hosted IP telephony

Formed in 1977, Speedy is a major provider of equipment and support services to the construction, manufacturing, industrial, rail and related industries operating from over 450 depots throughout the UK. Speedy tasked STL to come up with a solution that would provide their clients with an easy to use, reliable communications system that was capable of being rapidly deployed in often challenging circumstances where customer requirements frequently change daily.

Mobile offices with telephones

Speedy is currently installing over 250 mobile office units on a large building site in Stratford, East London at the venue of a forthcoming global sporting event. Each mobile unit arrives on site as a ready fitted out office, including furniture and a telephone system. They will be used by site managers and construction firms working on the project as the communications hub and will have up to 400 phone users. STL has formulated a ‘standard package’ for Speedy accommodation units, which includes the router, POE switch and broadband provision; the only variable being the type and quantity of IP phones required. In addition, STL is able to twin desk based phones with mobile devices so that users can report back from where the actual work is being undertaken rather than from a desk to increase productivity.

Cable free telecomms

Paul Mills, Business Development Manager for Speedy, commented, “We turned to STL on the recommendation of one of their existing clients. STL came up with an innovative solution to our problem of providing telephone lines on a site where it was not possible to get cable laid and consequently not possible to get services to.” STL has installed a hosted IP telephone service for Speedy clients who use the temporary buildings. Voice over IP enables normal telephone calls and video to be digitally transferred and routed over wireless data networks, thus removing the need for cabling.

Individual billing

Clients will receive their own individual monthly bill from Speedy, generated by STL’s online billing service, which enables Speedy to monitor the telephone usage of each individual user. This ensures regular billing and faster payment.

The staff at STL are always of a high calibre from management to sales people, engineers and the back room team.

Samsung Electronics

Unrequited trust

Samsung Electronics is one of the world’s leading electronics companies with telecommunications accounting for almost 30% of their business. STL has been selling Samsung telephone systems for 15 years and now enjoys Samsung Platinum Partner status, which reflects the the understanding and trust that has been built between the two companies. Such is the confidence that Samsung has in STL, they use STL to maintain their internal telephone systems in the UK.

New IP phones

STL recently installed new IP phones for over 750 users at Samsung Electronics Head Office in Chertsey. The system and the handsets were a brand new model and with the installation being pre-release, STL engineers undertook a 2 week training course prior to the installation itself to learn about the new technology before they installed the system. The installation process and the transition to the new system went smoothly with STL also providing training for all the users for the new IP phones.

Maintenance

As a result of the success of the installation by the STL team, they were also awarded the contract to maintain the system. Providing rapid response to faults and enquiries, STL’s in-house customer service department provides a prompt and efficient service. It is often able to diagnose and remedy problems remotely, ensuring that business continues at Samsung without interruption.

Platinum Partner

Peter Law, UK Sales Manager of Samsung Electronics, Network Division commented, ”STL Communications holds the highest level of accreditation from Samsung – that of being a Platinum Partner. This accreditation is audited on an annual basis and STL has consistently kept their standards high to achieve this status every year since its foundation.”

The new telephone system has ensured that we better manage our communication costs and the large range of selection criteria has allowed us to customise the reports to meet our individual needs.

Rowleys

Delivering growth

Leicester based accountants Rowley’s was founded in 1922 and today provides all the services expected of a firm of chartered accountants as well as offering IT consultancy, specialist tax advice and business strategy. Rowley’s vision is to deliver growth by exceeding clients expectations on all occasions and Rowley’s worked with STL to provide a communication system that enables them to achieve this.

Communication review

Following a comprehensive review of Rowley’s existing telephone system and its usage, STL installed a Samsung 7200 telephone system and Oak Ai-office, a call management system that allows Rowley’s to get the very best from their phone system.

The Samsung OfficeServe 7200 telephone system delivers advanced voice, data and wireless communications in a single platform. Rowley’s gained a better understanding of the benefits of the 7200 system with a live demonstration and by looking at a number of reference sites. Once the decision had been made, STL was able to install the new system quickly and efficiently. The onsite training that STL gave ensured that everyone could use the new system from the very start and they continue to benefit from ongoing after sales support from the STL team.

Oak’s Ai-office call management system enables Rowley’s to continually improve customer service, to keep call and telephone costs under control and to maximise the efficiency of telephone usage throughout the organisation.

Improved management of communication costs

Mark Hook, director of Rowley’s commented, “We are a go ahead company and we recognised a similar ethic in STL. They were able to provide a solution for our communications that makes the service we offer clients even more efficient. It has also ensured that we better manage our communication costs and the large range of selection criteria has allowed us to customise the reports to meet our individual needs.”

The new system is really easy to configure and administer, which means that we can enhance and tailor the IP Office 500 system to the specific needs of our business in-house.

Oxford Aviation Academy

Flying high

Oxford Aviation Academy (OAA) is one of the world’s leading independent providers of integrated aviation training and resourcing services. OAA has been training pilots for over 50 years and operates 105 training aircraft, 64 simulators and 10 training centres delivering an innovative and comprehensive portfolio of aviation training courses. Based at Oxford Airport in Kidlington, the OAA training centre is fully equipped to provide student pilots with all the necessary tools to help them to learn and complete their training effectively and efficiently using the very latest technology.

From the very beginning…

STL has been maintaining OAAʼs original Definity telephone system since they installed it 10 years ago. When the time came to replace the system in December 2011 STL was asked to quote along with 2 other suppliers.

Trade in

As an Avaya partner, STL knew that Avaya had a special trade in scheme running for old Definity systems when they were replaced with a new Avaya IP Office 500 system. STL was able to save OAA around £5,000 by taking advantage of this scheme and trading in their old system. On the back of this, STL won the contract to supply and install OAAʼs new Avaya IP Office 500 telephone system with 120 handsets at the Oxford Airport site.

Networking recommendation

A combination of the competitive quotation, the smooth installation and the on- going maintenance has meant that OAA has recommended that its other locations also use STL Communications. Currently STL is upgrading the telephone systems at Manchester and Gatwick Airports with a view to networking all the systems together later in 2012. STL will also be working with OAAʼs overseas suppliers in Australia, Hong Kong and USA to link their telephone systems as well.

Scalable Avayaʼs IP Office 500 gives OAA a complete solution for telephony, messaging, networking, conferencing, customer management and unified communications, providing a set of leading-edge communications capabilities to help their employees work smarter and serve customers more effectively. Says Jeremy Bolduc, Network Manager of OAA, “The new system is really easy to configure and administer, which means that we can enhance and tailor the IP Office 500 system to the specific needs of our business in-house.” With VoIP, OAA will also benefit from free site to site calls and lower calls costs. Jeremy adds, “STLʼs solution perfectly matches our needs now and provides scalability for the future as we grow and expand.”

STL quickly understood our needs and came up with a proposal that showed how we could improve our productivity as well as being able to manage the system better internally.

MCE

300% increase in talk time

MCE is one the UK’s largest and fastest growing independent insurance brokers. More than 100,000 customers insure their bikes, cars and homes with MCE either by telephone or online, which is why they turned to STL to help them get more out of their telephony.

Increasing agents talk time

STL soon established that there was no need to replace MCE’s existing Samsung communications system, which MCE were happy to continue to use. However, there was an opportunity to take a holistic look at MCE’s call handling and to make the system work better for them.

MCE wanted to increase the daily outbound/inbound call throughput and effectiveness and turned to STL for assistance. STL in conjunction with Braxtel, one of their partners, designed a cost-effective contact centre tailor-made for MCE’s current and projected requirements. MCE can now programme the system to pull information such as forthcoming renewal dates direct from the database and to dial numbers for the agents. The agents talk time has increased by 300%, making them more efficient and productive.

Chasing new business

MCE also recognised the need to separate new business calls from general enquires such as a maturity date or a policy value; questions that do not need to be dealt with by an agent. By providing an automated information system for these general questions, the agents can concentrate on calls about new policies.

Call recording

Being authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, MCE is required to record calls. To comply with FSA regulations, the new system enables them to record all calls, store them for the specified time period and easily retrieve them. Call recording also provides quality monitoring for staff training purposes, which means that the agents can become more effective.

Julian Edwards, a Director of MCE commented, “STL quickly understood our needs and came up with a proposal that showed how we could improve our productivity as well as being able to manage the system better internally. Working closely with their partner Braxtel, STL installed the new system and undertook training for our agents. The installation and changeover went just as planned and with minimal disruption to our business.”

STL was recommended to us and that recommendation as fully deserved. They quickly grasped our requirements and were responsive throughout the process beyond.

Hoar Cross Spa Resort

Stately home with 21st century comms

Deep in the heart of rural Staffordshire, Hoar Cross Hall Spa Resort is a Grade II listed stately home retreat that pairs period style with modern luxury. Set in 70 acres of English countryside, Hoar Cross Hall Spa Resort offers 96 bedrooms as well as spa and fitness facilities, cafés, restaurants and a bar for private and business guests from around the world. STL won the bid to install a new telephone system because we fully understood the complex requirements and so proposed the best solution.

2 into 1

With an old telephone system in the hotel and another in the spa, the brief was to bring the two together with one system that would ensure that both areas of the business worked more efficiently to provide an even higher level of service to guests.

Old and new

STL proposed the newest Samsung 7400 system with 200 handsets to deliver advanced voice, data and wireless communications over an IP platform. The new Samsung 7400 system easily integrated with the existing front of house software for guest checking in and bill generation.

Installation challenges

The installation was complex because of the size of the site and the age of the building. STL engineers worked in conjunction with the builders carrying out a refurbishment, operating in stages to fit in with the building programme. Care was taken at all times to preserve the original features of the buildingʼs interior, which were designed long before telephones existed.

Monitoring

The new telephone system enables the hotelʼs large call centre to deal with high levels of inbound and outbound calls easily. Monitoring solutions, including a display board, has helped to reduce the length of time callers are kept

waiting and shows who is answering calls, providing more efficient handling of bookings and enquiries for the hotel and spa. Hotel staff were trained by STL on how to use the system, as well as on the system administration so that they can make programme changes in house when required.

In order to attract new tenants we have to offer the very latest in enterprise communications for both voice and data.

Hexagon

Tenant magnet

Hexagon Business Centres in Witney is home to over 70 small and growing businesses.These businesses benefit from having flexible serviced office space on easy in, easy out licences. Tenants moving in require the very latest in voice and data communications as soon as they arrive and the centre management needs to be able to manage billing for each in-house tenant.

IP telephony

Hexagon invested in IP telephony for the two centres in Witney and beyond to their virtual tenants. This system allows tenants to work anywhere and everywhere using a softphone application on laptops or tablets . There is also an option for tenants to pair their mobiles with their desk phone to always be connected.

Fast broadband

Each office needs fast broadband connectivity as well. Hexagon’s management team can now provide tenants with some of the fastest broadband speeds available in the town through STL. Hexagon can deliver uncontended broadband over a leased line for continuous quick broadband.

Virtual numbers

Hexagon also wanted to provide tenants with the opportunity to have area codes other than just a Witney code so they can appear to be located where they are not. This is particularly important for virtual tenants who may not be based locally, but use Hexagonʼs telephone answering service.

Easy billing

The centre management needed to have a simple system for producing individual bills for tenants and virtual tenants for their broadband, lines and calls each month. STL proposed Oakʼs call management and billing system, which enables Hexagon to produce itemised bills for each in-house tenant.

GreenMinutes ticks all the boxes because it is carbon neutral and it reduces costs.

Elliott

3 in 1: Carbon phoneprint offset, costs saved and bills simplified

In order to respond quickly to customer requests, voice and data communications are a key part of Elliott’s customer service. Elliott asked STL to help them simplify their telephone systems across their sites and to provide them with cost savings.

Elliott is the UK’s leader in relocatable accommodation including portable cabins, modular buildings, secure storage, portable toilets, temporary kitchens, temporary fencing and fast track building solutions provided from locations throughout the UK.

Immediate cost savings

Following an overview of Elliott’s systems and lines, STL recommended that they install a VOIP linked telephone system to cut out all inter site call charges. With VOIP, normal telephone calls (and video) are digitally transferred and routed over data networks, such as the Internet, a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN). With 21 Elliott sites using this system, STL was able to demonstrate an immediate saving in call charges. The customer service element was enhanced with voicemail, call recording and call centre functionality to ensure that Elliott continue to excel in customer care.

Simplified billing

STL was able to simplify Elliott’s entire systems, lines and calls into one simple online bill. STL’s Onebill brings together all the costs for the entire telephone network, including call charges, so that costs can be managed more easily. STL OneBill is designed especially for each individual client and the electronic invoice and copies can be sent to anyone in the Elliott organisation.

Helping the environment

Elliott was keen to sign up to STL’s GreenMinutes to help redress the eco balance by offsetting the carbon phoneprint and benefiting from other environmentally friendly features. With GreenMinutes every second counts because the carbon cost of each telephone call is calculated and goes to support an important environmental project. In addition, as part of the GreenMinutes scheme, Elliott has free audio conferencing, meaning that their employees do not have to travel to central meetings, saving not only on the carbon costs of travel but also time.

An Elliott spokesperson commented, ‘Elliott is working towards making a significant commitment to carbon reduction, so GreenMinutes ticks all the boxes because it is carbon neutral and it reduces costs. GreenMinutes is an excellent idea and Elliott is delighted to be an early adopter.’

The key thing is our broadband is now business grade that allows voice and data which is what businesses need in today’s digital economy

Bignell Park Barns

Olympic broadband solution for farm

Bignell Park Barns near Chesterton in Oxfordshire is an attractive conversion of stone-built farm buildings into high-quality, modern offices suitable for small and medium sized businesses. Despite being based within easy access of the M40, A34 and fast rail services in nearby Bicester, the broadband connectivity was poor. Edward Lane Fox, owner of Bignell Park Barns, has given up waiting for BT’s rural broadband provision and has taken the decision to invest in his own rural broadband solution.

Waiting for BT

Although Oxfordshire County Council has signed a £14M deal with BT to provide faster rural broadband, many areas of the county will still have a 2 year wait. With the demand for hosted data and voice communications moving faster than BTʼs rural broadband provision, STL Communications has been working with local business owners frustrated with the long wait, to install equivalent, more innovative rural broadband solutions right now.

Fast roads, slow broadband

Edward Lane Fox was aware that some of his existing tenants were beginning to report their dissatisfaction with the current slow broadband speeds with no better alternative other than expensive leased lines. “We have a superb location within easy reach of Bicester and Oxford and junctions 9 and 10 of the M40. We have a quality product, but the broadband speed was rubbish. I couldnʼt afford to wait for Oxfordshire County Councilʼs broadband solution, so I decided to invest in my own. It is important for me to offer my tenants uncontended guaranteed bandwidth that not only gives them high speed internet access but also enables them to use next generation communication technologies.”

Business grade broadband

STL has installed a business grade uncontended bandwidth that enables businesses on the Park to run VoIP, SIP trunking, hosted telephony, hosted data applications and cloud computing across high speed internet connections. Adds Edward Lane Fox, “The key thing is our broadband is now business grade that allows voice and data which is what businesses need in todayʼs digital economy. Iʼm grateful for the guidance provided by Steve Jackson of Business-Led IT Ltd who looked after my interests and to work closely with the excellent STL Communications.”

Olympic sized solution STLʼs solution was the one that they used so successfully to deliver services into the Olympic Park for L2012C. It involves providing a high capacity Ethernet broadband line in to a central location and then delivering sections of this bandwidth to businesses in the vicinity via a number of different methods, from copper wire to fibre optic cable and wireless, matching the optimum solution to the location and to the business.