The unified communication system supports upwards of 2,500 handsets across 80 sites, all of them IP phones. When it was installed just over three years ago it was one of the largest IP installations in the country.
The system has two main servers on two separate sites ensuring business continuity in the event of a natural disaster or critical infrastructure failure.
“We are very pleased that a local company has won the contract,” said Kevin Amos, the council’s Technical Support Manager. “We were looking to reduce the cost of the system maintenance and we put the job out to tender to Avaya itself and some of its higher-tiered Business Partners.
“Pennine came in with the best and lowest tender. The fact that they are based in our town did not come into the equation, but it is nice to have someone local to deal with.”
Pennine, an Avaya Platinum Business Partner, has been supplying the council’s two-way radio communications for 20 years. In addition to the phone maintenance, the company also recently provided cost effective wireless solutions to replace expensive leased lines so that it now offers the council a complete communications solution – telephony, radio and wireless.