This document discusses Ashford Borough Council's transition from traditional telephone systems to modern IP and virtualized systems. It outlines how the council migrated its phone system to a Mitel VoIP solution, deployed virtualization with VMWare, and expanded voice services like teleworking and video conferencing. The council found virtualizing its phone infrastructure provided significant cost savings, improved manageability, quick deployment times, and easy scalability compared to traditional systems. Voice services performed well without perceived differences when virtualized.

1. From TDM to IP to Virtualisation… Rob Neil Head of Business Change & Technology Ashford Borough Council

3. Pop. 114,000 (at the moment)

4. Demographically diverse

5. Challenging budget constraints

6. Improved customer service a key corporate driverSetting the scene…

7. ICT estate VoIP deployed since 2003 Chosen supplier Mitel Networks Desktop telephony Remote workers Contact Centre Data virtualisation underway Chosen supplier VMWare Predominantly Wintel, some Solaris, Linux

8. From TDM to IP Mitel 3300 ICP 6100 call centre platform Call Centre Management Automatic Email distribution Intelligent Queue (IP based IVR) 6500 Speech Server (Voice recognition) Video conferencing Teleworker Solution Remote IP phones DPNSS to legacy voice switch

9. From TDM to IP Teleworker (including ACD agents) IP telephony over ADSL without need for VPN Significant savings over leased line infrastructure Cheap resilience & BCP solution Can use cheap SIP endpoints Video conferencing capable

10. From TDM to IP Automatic Email distribution Automatic SMS distribution In-house developed add-on Video (over ADSL) For remote sites/information kiosks Web and voice call-backs Convenience for end-user Smoothes out demand in call centre

11. From TDM to IP Handle SMS via 6150 email distribution system Direct link to back office systems Integration with call centre SMS routes to available agent Outlook used to answer Access to reporting, etc

12. Voice services expand…

13. From IP to Virtual Getting more for less Gearing your IT Infrastructure for success Rationalise Duplication of resource Cost Reduction Capital & Operational Operational Efficiency Simplify Infrastructure Maintenance & Support

15. £10k Hardware Costs

16. 10 Server Footprint

17. £100k Hardware Costs

18. No Disaster Recovery

19. Limited HA

20. 1 Server DR Offering

21. Automatic HA

22. POCs in Weeks

23. Deploy in Months

24. POCs in Days

25. Deploy in Weeks

26. Complex issue reproduction

27. Simplified tech support (transfer entire VM)

28. Increased Upgrade Uptake with virtual solution

30. Evolution in Voice Delivery

31. Voice services expand…

32. Fitting it together Industry Standard Servers x86 - SUN, HP, IBM, DELL E1, PRI, Q.SIGQ.931, BRI, ISDN30 IP / SIPNGN Services VoIP G/W3300 ICP etc.. Call Centre Control Mobilitysolutions MCD* MCD* Unified comms VMware vSphere 4

33. Our experience Deployed as desktop, hotdesk and ACD No perceived difference to non VM voice Incredibly quick deployment Increased manageability Fully integrated into DR & BCP plans Reduced maintenance spend Easily scalable

34. ICT & Customer Services Ashford Borough Council Civic Centre Tannery Lane Ashford TN23 1PL (01233) 331111 www.ashford.gov.uk