Many thousands of visitors from across the world are reaping the benefits of outdated telecoms being replaced by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) when they book tickets for, or enquire about, the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and Queen Charlotte’s Cottage.
Bookings and enquiries are among operations being dealt with much more efficiently because Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) staff have the benefit of the new system.
Computer telephony integration expert Actimax, won the contract to re-equip HRP with an integrated Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise telecoms solution.
Eight different telephone systems spread across six locations had been hampering HRP’s ability to develop the palaces’ visitor experience to the full. The organisation’s main criteria were to improve the handling of enquiries, reduce call charges, streamline connections between different locations and improve document sharing for staff.
Managing Director and founder of Basildon-based Actimax, John Massey, said: “Actimax achieved all the requirements for Historic Royal Palaces and the end result was a complete success. Expert planning and project management ensured that all problems and pitfalls had been overcome before implementation began.”
Crucial to HRP’s daily operation in which staff handle thousands of calls was Actimax' seamless changeover from their old system to the new Alcatel-based VoIP set up. Actimax has utilised “double jumpering” in which old and new systems are connected before the old system is dispensed with. This was completed for the main users, overnight in just five hours.
HRP’s IS Projects Manager, Barbara Crow, who oversaw the whole operation, praised the work of the Actimax team. She said: “HRP asked Actimax to help update our system and make working at multiple sites easier for our team. Staff are now happily freeseating with their new telephone numbers from site to site. “This means that staff have just one office telephone number and one voicemail to manage.”