The background
South West Communications Group provides a complete voice and data solution to accommodate a new multi-tenanted healthcare centre that needed to meet a definitive budget.
The Blackdown Healthy Living Centre in Hemyock, Cullompton, Devon, is a community service from which health organisations offer a range of advice to people of all ages living in the Blackdown Hills. Services include support for the elderly and frail suffering from chronic conditions and poor mental health, as well as healthcare education, parenting classes, IT courses, LEA education courses, alternative therapies, a dementia cafe, a day centre for the elderly and youth programmes, all delivered in partnership with the Blackdown Hills Support Group, GPs and other practitioners.
The challenge
The creation of the charity-funded The Blackdown Healthy Living Centre saw the £365,000 conversion of a former social club and vacant garages which was opened for use in early 2010. The new owners needed a business class telephone system suitable to serve the 10 rooms that would be used by a variety of tenants, including the Blackdown Practice, as well as a central reception service.
The Centre was keen for each tenant to have own direct dial-in numbers and separate handsets so they could work autonomously. It also required a data network that could be utilised by the tenants, with the Blackdown Practice nurses in particular requiring the ability to gain access to the surgery’s network securely without the risk of any other parties seeing this information.
The further challenge was that as a charity, the Centre had a set budget for this element of the project and therefore needed the most cost-effective way of achieving their needs.
The solution
South West Communications Group installed a Toshiba CIX40 IP telephone system, an Alcatel-Lucent data infrastructure together with a Cisco router to deliver a converged voice and data solution that included:
- Toshiba IP CIX40 business telephone system with direct dial to extension users
- Voicemail with remote access to messages
- Flexible call forwarding options
- Simplified, centralised billing
- Private virtual local area network infrastructure (VLANs) for flexibility and security
- Ongoing advice & support
For more on this case study, please click here
