In 2006 the new state-of-the-art Harrogate Health Centre opened to the public, a flagship building for the future of the North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Telephone systems supplier, installer and maintainer TIME Communication Solutions Ltd was able to work in partnership with one of the UK's leading fixed line service providers Daisy Communications Ltd (daisy), and put forward a solution that would meet the demands of the new health centre.

A daisy partner since 2005, Yorkshire-based TIME has a proven track record in providing communications hardware solutions to the medical sector. Referred to the health centre's practice manager Annita Langley, and with the aid of daisy's broad portfolio of products, TIME was able to present a communications solution that couldn't be turned down. 

The Issue

Several key requirements were identified prior to the migration of services to the new building.

The purpose-built development was housing the Kingswood Surgery, a replacement for the town's Kings Road Surgery and the practice's branch surgery on Woodlands Drive, and in addition the centre would also house the Community Dental Service as well as a number of the PCT's community nurses.

Each site had its own communications solution and by coming together and under one roof, a new solution was needed that was able to take into consideration the amalgamation of these multiple users, yet allow the migration process to the new building to be as seamless as possible.

A cut above the competition

With a reputation that preceded it, TIME was confident it could meet the demands of the new health centre and exceed the multiple users' expectations by being able to offer daisy's competitive lines and calls offering in addition to its own hardware solution.

"Once we learnt the size of the project and that the development was purpose-built, TIME was able to start speaking to the practice manager about the communications solutions," said sales director Jeffrey Cohen.

"And it was in these initial conversations that it became apparent that two other departments would be moving into the building as well."

Rather than three separate systems TIME was able to put forward one, allowing the three separate departments to benefit from one single company and therefore one single solution.

Time put forward a solution in the form of the Aastra 2065 phone system with fully integrated voicemail and auto-attendant. And with tenant working three different organisations were able to use the one telephone system.

And working with daisy the individual departments would each receive an individual monthly bill.

 "From TIME'S point of view we understood the nature of the health centre's business. From the early days we knew what they wanted to do in terms of communications and they had full confidence in us and daisy providing a solution," said Jeffrey Cohen.

A winning partnership

The partners knew that medical centres invariably receive a high volume of calls, from all members of the community and at all times of the year. It was therefore essential that the health centre's concern of handling of a very busy switchboard was addressed.

"Technology can always be manipulated, but at some point there is the inevitably of a bottleneck of calls," said Cohen. "At some point those calls will reach a human at the other end of the phone. It's important that that call does get through and that it can be managed efficiently."

Cost savings were an important factor, but this had to be backed up by a reliable service.

daisy only works with tier one carriers and this dedication means customers can be safe in the knowledge that their calls are routed over only the highest quality of networks.

When the communications contract was put out to tender, TIME faced competition from other, more prominent names in the industry. But while they may have provided a cheaper option, the centre's practise manager knew that cost savings weren't the be all and end all. Reliability in its lines was just as important as a functional system and competitive call charges.

"daisy complemented TIME'S proposal in various ways. When TIME put forward the proposal for the health centre it was able to look at the previous call profiles of the different areas coming together and show them ways in which they could save money," said Cohen.

Cohen was able to approach the health centre with a proposal that included reduced call charges. And when it came to the implementation phase, daisy was able to install an ISDN30e free of charge.

And furthermore the health centre was happy with the quality of service it was receiving from daisy, reassured by the Openreach engineers that came to the building to undertake work and the resilient tier one network its calls would be routed over.

Annita Langley said: "As a general practice we stand alone.  But in our previous set up we had two separate surgeries, each responsible for its own telephone system.

"Originally when I started negotiations I was looking for a telephone system that could be put in place for the practice, the dental surgery and the community nurses. There could be one system for all of us, but three separate bills.

"We have enjoyed a very smooth service with TIME and daisy. Everything was up and running on the day the health centre opened and has been running smoothly ever since. And as telephones play such a huge part in our practice, a smooth and flawless service is a necessity."

About Time

TIME Communication Solutions Ltd supply, install and maintain telephone systems and absolutely everything that connects to a telephone system.

About daisy

Established in 2001, daisy is one of the UK's leading communications providers for business, providing cost-effective communications with unrivalled customer service to small-medium enterprise (SME) customers across the UK.  Our range of solutions includes fixed and mobile voice, data and IP, standard and specialist non-geographic numbers, line rental and broadband. 

Benefits to the Health Centre

• One bill solution
• PSTN analogue new line installations
• PSTN analogue maintenance
• ISDN30 new installations
• ISDN30 maintenance

Benefits to Time

• Dedicated account manager
• Business Partner Support Team
• Extensive and evolving product range
• Comprehensive training programmes
  

 TIME Communications and Harrogate Health Centre (179.57 KB 2007-07-24 09:24:15)