Southend City Council delivers services to more than 170,000 residents and supports a borough used by millions of additional visitors each year. Reliable communications are therefore central to resident contact, public services and internal operations.
Intuity was asked to review the council’s ageing Avaya Communication Manager environment, improve stability and modernise a contact centre while reducing the overall cost of the platform.
The original requirement
The initial plan was to upgrade the existing enterprise Avaya platform. The target design needed to support 50 contact-centre agents and five supervisors, reuse suitable desk phones and provide softphone access for remote workers.
Finding a lower-cost design
During the review, Intuity identified that an upgrade of the legacy enterprise hardware would require substantial capital expenditure while retaining higher maintenance costs. A different approach was proposed using Avaya IP Office, allowing suitable existing handsets to be retained while moving to a current platform.
A major change in strategy
Before go-live, the council changed its wider IT strategy and decided to adopt Microsoft Teams for most back-office users while retaining Avaya for the contact centre and selected remote operations. Intuity redesigned the solution around this new requirement without discarding the work already completed.
The hybrid solution
- Avaya IP Office for the contact centre and selected users.
- Microsoft Teams for the majority of back-office employees.
- AudioCodes Mediant session border controllers.
- Gamma SIP trunks.
- A new Gamma leased line for voice connectivity.
- Reuse of suitable existing Avaya handsets.
Controlled migration and governance
The migration was split into four phases. A pilot group moved first and was tested and signed off before more business-critical teams followed. Intuity maintained the project plan, coordinated suppliers and provided regular reporting to the council’s project and leadership teams throughout the change.
Ongoing support
The managed maintenance service started after migration and has remained in place since 2018. The arrangement has continued to meet its agreed measures while supporting the council’s operational communications environment.
The result
- The ageing Communication Manager environment was replaced.
- Existing user equipment was reused where appropriate.
- A 50-agent, five-supervisor contact centre was delivered.
- Remote users gained softphone capability.
- Teams and Avaya were integrated into one hybrid design.
- The migration was completed in four controlled stages.
The project demonstrates how a communications programme can be redesigned around a significant change in customer strategy without losing control of risk, timetable or specialist contact-centre requirements.
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