Forest Care Upgrades Voice Communications with Sangoma and Saves Big
The Customer
Forest Care has been making the difficult process of choosing a care home easier for British families for over thirty years. Located in neighboring counties of Surrey and Hampshire, their four luxurious locations are all rated highly by the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health and social care in England. They focus on providing the highest standard of care to every resident, ensuring their health, wellness, and comfort. They strive to make each resident feel truly at home from the onset of their stay, whether it be a short respite to relieve a caregiver or a long-term stay.
Business Challenges
Forest Care was struggling with a complicated legacy phone system. It was operating with an old PBX and utilizing ISD allowing them to make and receive calls in their rooms. These were implemented along with IP-based desk phones and cordlessN lines separate from their internet data lines, each from different providers. They needed an upgraded phone system that offered consolidated providers a seamless connection between their four locations, and more flexibility. Another key challenge was the need to supply residents a phone in their room without additional costs or technical hassle. Aside from a phone system, Forest Care wanted support and a partnership with the integrator who would work as a team with their IT department for their customers and residents.
Solutions from Sangoma
For assistance in designing and deploying a new communications platform, Forest Care approached P2C Communications, Ltd. Headquartered in Surrey, P2C Communications found a cost-efficient solution that catered to all of their needs. They opted for a virtualized hosted PBXact Unified Communications solution along with SIP trunking. With this choice, they were able to combine all the separate connections and service providers into a single location. This allowed all locations to connect to a central virtualized Unified Communications phone system. At each location, Sangoma Vega 3000G FXS gateways were deployed to provide each resident a direct dial-in (DDI) and compatibility with pre-existing analogue phones, allowing them to make and receive calls in their rooms. These were implemented along with IP-based desk phones and cordless devices, so nurses and aides always have a phone close at hand.
The Results
Forest Care could not be happier upgrading to the Sangoma solution deployed by P2C Communications. In the design stages, cost assessments were made between Sangoma and other premier brands. The pricing for the PBXact solution from Sangoma was a 50% cost reduction over a comparable system from other vendors. But cost savings were not the only reason for Forest Care’s satisfaction. With their phone system and SIP trunks hosted in a data centre, communication between locations is as seamless as if they were housed in a single building. And the elimination of separate phone lines with the utilization of VoIP technology means that connections and service providers are consolidated into a single source and provider, simplifying a previously complicated situation. This consolidation of voice and data lines also meant that Forest Care was able to opt out of the ISDN network years before the UK switch-off. Combined with the use of cutting-edge IP technology, they can have peace of mind knowing that their phone system is ready for the future. Finally, the upgrade to PBXact granted Forest Care a degree of flexibility they had never known with their legacy phone system thanks to the advanced Unified Communications features included in their new system. Forest Care found in Sangoma’s PBXact one solution to a diverse set of communication complications.