IP ENABLING E-GOVERNMENT AT BASSETLAW DC

A Philips IP-enabled solution puts Bassetlaw District Council on the road to e-Government

With approximately 960 employees, three main offices and numerous satellite sites and service areas, Bassetlaw District Council serves a population of almost 106,000 across North Nottinghamshire. Driven by a desire to offer its public better and more responsive services the Council looked for a new telecommunications platform and partner.

Communications-wise, having three main offices combined with a number of other factors, made it difficult for the Council to deliver to the desired service levels. Members of the calling public sometimes didn’t know which office to call with an enquiry or problem. And having called one office, they would often have to be transferred between various services before getting the information they wanted. The Council was aware that its existing communications platform did not have the necessary functionality to support centralised call management and joined-up working between its sites. In addition, support for their existing voice switch was also about to be withdrawn.

Colin Fielding, Telecommunications Network Analyst at Bassetlaw, explained that the Council wanted a fully integrated converged voice and data network that could provide IP connectivity between its sites. This would increase bandwidth capacity, simplify network management, cost-effectively facilitate joined-up working, and provide the flexibility to create web-based applications to – support new & improved e-Government services. Heading the Council’s requirements was centralised enquiry handling that would enable staff across the organisation to access and share information and provide a quick, professional response. “The Philips IP telephony solution stood out from the crowd,” he said. “It offered exactly what we were looking for, with proven capability that had been deployed at referenceable customers.”

Three SOPHO iS3070 communication servers, one installed at each of its three main offices, now form the core of Bassetlaw District Council’s PBC solution, which includes the tight integration - with products and services from other third-party, best-of-breed suppliers.. Seamless connectivity across the Council’s Wide Area Network (WAN) is provided by Philips IP Gateways operating in conjunction with Philips IPVN (Integrated Virtual Private Networking). Furthermore, because it was also able to capitalise on PBC’s IP telephony experience, the Council has already realised a number of its ambitions, including the convergence of its previously separate voice and data networks. Employees can now access and share information across the whole organisation.

One of the SOPHO switches, supported by PBC’s call-handling software, was immediately put to good use in the Council’s Housing Repairs Service Centre. This call centre was set up by the Council to deal with enquiries from residents about house repairs coming in on two freephone numbers in two separate areas. It is also providing the communications backbone for a one-stop enquiry shop operated in conjunction with the larger, Nottinghamshire County Council. Plans are now afoot to establish a similar site that can be developed into a centralised call handling facility to support all the Council’s services. The SOPHO iS3070 switches are proving to be important building blocks for Bassetlaw’s e-Government aspirations. And the IP capabilities of the switches help the Council to promote teleworking amongst its employees because it makes it easier, more cost-effective and more flexible than traditional networking does.

According to Fielding, Philips also played an integral role in knitting the various components of this solution into a cohesive entity for the Council. “Philips’ project managers and engineers, integration expertise and support at critical points of the implementation was invaluable,” he said. Looking to the future, the Council now plans to extend the solution into its satellite offices, starting with one of its housing offices that is currently fed by external PSTN lines and a single data link. “Having started with the main node we can now spread out our communications network like a web. It’s now cost-effectively possible to plug in other offices and teleworkers into a virtual private network that offers all users the same sophisticated communications capabilities.”

Colin Fielding’s enthusiasm for the PBC solution is evidently shared by Bassetlaw’s Head of Customer Services, Steve Brown: “We believe Philips has provided us with a communications platform on which we can progress further e-government initiatives, and that will support us well into the future,” he said.