Dacorum Borough Council Case Study

How have we changed the way they communicate?

Efficient communications between staff in multiple offices
Flexible working for staff

The challenge

17 disparate offices needed to access corporate information securely
Reduce costs

Our solution

Restructured WAN design
Network overhaul using cost effective access methods
Intelligent, soft migration to IP Communications
Secure remote access for voice and data, via SSL VPN

The Results

£40K cost saving per annum
Hot desking
One point of contact for network and telephony
Improved security

Scattered Locations, Disparate Technology

Situated in the South of England, Dacorum Borough Council encompasses the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring, in addition to a number of large and small villages.

The Council is responsible for the provision of many services, including housing, cemeteries and recycling, and the provision of leisure services in partnership with Dacorum Sports Trust. With a wide array of services to deliver, the Council needs a reliable communications infrastructure to effectively coordinate staff and services.

As the Council is spread across three towns and several villages, the communications infrastructure was complex and costly to maintain. For many, the communications experience was highly dependent on the site at which they were stationed.

Headquartered in Hemel Hempstead, with 16 satellite offices scattered across the region, the Council decided to deploy secure remote access technology to improve communications between sites. Scalable Communications (Scalable), a specialist provider in convergence, unification and security, was engaged to deliver access to the Council’s applications from remote sites.

Scalable worked closely with Dacorum Council to gain a clear understanding of what the Council was trying to achieve, soon becoming involved in helping the Council develop a long-term communications strategy encompassing both voice and data infrastructure.

Through this consultative approach, it was determined that the Council would be able to achieve substantial savings through restructuring some of the network lines it was leasing. In a comprehensive network review, Scalable advised the Council to replace BT Megastream and Kilostream circuits with alternatives, amongst other changes. Upon completion a highly cost-effective network design had been delivered, providing the Council with cost savings of £40k per annum.

Secure and Improved Converged Communications

To address the need to securely access corporate information from the Council’s outlying sites, Scalable deployed an SSL VPN through which information can be properly protected and supported, thereby reducing the security risks involved with traditional IPSec VPN technology.

Over and above accessing corporate applications, it was vitally important that staff were able to easily communicate with one another and with the public, by telephone. As Dacorum Council had an Ericsson MD110 in place for telephony, Scalable recommended the deployment of Mitel Networks IP Telephony to support the outlying sites.

Implementing a Mitel system offered Dacorum Council the opportunity to migrate to IP Communications over time, based on their ability to invest in new technology. The Mitel 3300 sits alongside the Ericsson MD110, providing telephony to the outlying sites. At some sites, the Mitel 3300 was deployed with built-in Power over Ethernet, thereby simplifying the technology infrastructure.

With Mitel telephony in place at the outlying sites, the Council has been able to take advantage of hot desking. This has had mass appeal for the multitude of staff who travel from site to site, allowing them to log into their own profile to access their personal speed dial keys and their own directory number while sitting at any desk. Scalable was quick to identify that Mitel remote worker IP telephony could overcome the challenges of providing voice communications to some of the micro sites run by the Council,.This offered remote workers and micro sites directory number access to the central voice system with all of the same features as the main host site, like voice mail, centralised directory and conferencing.

The same technology has been implemented for home workers and to facilitate flexible working, allowing a number of councillors to work from home.

To realise the benefits of the voice and data technologies in which the Council invested, it was crucial that the underlying infrastructure was converged to run voice and data. Scalable identified that Extreme Networks’ edge technology was the best in class to deliver the networking capabilities for the outlying sites. As voice communications are sensitive to delay, quality of service is critical to its delivery, and Extreme Networks was chosen based on its reputation to provide high availability and voice quality service. Moreover, Extreme Networks is renowned for its comprehensive security features, an important element in delivering secure remote access for the Council.

Ongoing Relationship

Scalable continues to play an active role in supporting the Council’s migration to IP Communications and state-of-the-art networking technology. Scalable is a single point of contact providing first line support to the Council, identifying the nature of the issue and liaising with BT on behalf of the Council.

The project has been a genuine success for Dacorum Council, allowing them to realise real cost savings on the WAN, while enabling better communications throughout. Dacorum Council has taken a wise decision by evolving to IP Communications and is reaping the advantages of new technology without breaking the bank.