Driven by a business need to reduce costs, the decision was taken to consolidate the number of office buildings they operated out of by over 50% - reducing down from nine to four locations. As a result, the charity wanted to ensure that staff could work remotely, but still be easily and simply connected to each other and have seamless telephone system capabilities regardless of where they were working from. In addition, the organisation also wanted to reduce the time and costs of having to operate and manage many different fixed telephone systems.
As part of an IT Transformation project, which included migrating to Microsoft Office 365, the charity chose to replace all separate legacy telephone (PBX) systems with VIA Voice, the cloud-based Skype for Business UC solution which seamlessly integrates with Office 365.
Tracey Ruddock, Chief Executive at Home-Start Lincolnshire, said, “Replacing our separate conventional telephony and audio conferencing systems with VIA Voice has helped us to boost workforce collaboration and productivity, which is extremely important when providing services to those in need. The new platform gives our employees more freedom and flexibility, whilst also helping us to make significant cost savings.
Alex Tebbs, Director at VIA, commented, “Home-Start Lincolnshire provides valuable services across a large geographical area stretching more than 2,500 square miles, so staff are constantly on the move. VIA’s mission is to help Microsoft’s customers (especially those who have adopted Office 365) to leverage and maximise their investment and reduce unnecessary third party costs. VIA achieves this by providing a single, consistent UC user experience based around Skype for Business with key enhancements. The VIA Voice solution provides the charity’s employees with greater access to work-based applications and allows them to be in constant communication with their colleagues, even when carrying out home visits.”