Located on a beautiful site in Surrey, Woolmer Hill Technology College is a mixed comprehensive school which provides education for around 640 pupils aged from 11 to 16. As a specialist technology college the school is committed to excellence in Maths, Science and IT, as well as in all other areas of its curriculum. It has outstanding facilities, including design and technology suites, art studios, IT hubs and a new sports centre, all of which have been designed to encourage an enjoyment for learning amongst its pupils – something which is demonstrated in the excellent results which the school achieves.
Woolmer Hill aims to be the leading specialist comprehensive serving its community and to offer a ‘first-class experience for everyone’. Which means not only providing excellent teaching for its students, but also communicating effectively with parents at all times. And, being a technology focused educational establishment, it’s vital of course that the school makes effective use of the latest technology when it comes to making that communication possible - as Business Manager Fran Crawley explains:
“Efficiency was the key when it came to changing the way we managed our communications. Our existing NEC system was outdated and it could not provide the automated services we required. Whilst offering a personal service is of course very important, there are times when the ability to direct calls straight to a voicemail box or a DDI number can make a real difference. We wanted our front office staff to be able to offer a more efficient response, without the need for parents and other callers to be left on hold for extended periods of time.”
Finding the right partner
Fran started to look around for a solution to this problem in the Summer of 2008 and initially contacted the school’s existing provider. At the same time she also wanted to look at other companies to ensure that every option had been considered, and a timely marketing contact resulted in education specialists Corporate ICT being added to that list.
“I didn’t really want to change from our existing provider”, continues Fran. “But unfortunately their quote was staggeringly high. We asked them to bring it down but they couldn’t get anywhere near the price which Corporate were quoting. Added to that, we visited another school which had the ‘all singing, all dancing’ system that our existing supplier was recommending, and decided that it was just far too complex for what we needed at the moment. Better to have something with the facilities we actually needed, rather than something more expensive where half of the functionality would not be used.”
The Samsung OfficeServ 7200 which Corporate recommended solved this problem by providing everything which Woolmer Hill needed initially, but also giving them the opportunity to add extra functionality in the future when this was required. Having carried out extensive research over a three month period, Fran finally selected Corporate ICT after a meeting with both sales and technical staff to discuss precisely what she required, and to agree the exact specification and criteria.
“The Samsung system could do everything we wanted now, as well as giving us future ‘add-on’ options - and of course cost was right”, she confirms. “ We did thorough research and we knew we were getting value for money, so it’s worked all round. The process was time consuming but it was worth it. For example, with the old system we never had enough extensions, but with the new one we made sure we knew exactly how many we would need before we started.”
“Installation was seamless, with no disruption at all, and the user training we received was very good. We’ve had no complaints at all since the OfficeServ system was installed, nor have we had any problems. It’s has made a huge difference for us, so we’re very happy, and I would definitely recommend Corporate ICT to other schools.”
Fran Crawley – Business Manager
An exact solution
The system was installed in February 2009 during the half term break and has 40 extensions which are spread across four sites. Existing cabling was used and the system functions as a single entity, allowing staff to make internal calls between sites and to see their colleagues’ status even if they are in another building. It provides the auto-attendant facilities which were Fran’s main requirement, as well as incoming DDI numbers and a range of voicemail boxes. The package which Corporate created for Woolmer Hill also includes provision of calls and lines, which helps Fran to keep everything under one roof and allows for simpler management of the whole system.
As many of the teaching staff do not have a handset of their own, the OfficeServ system has also been set up to include a phone in the staff room and one in each department - for example Design Technology, Maths or English – supporting around five staff members on average. This allows teachers to access individual ‘virtual’ voicemail boxes to collect messages, change greetings and so on, even though they do not have a dedicated phone. In addition, there are also two operator consoles for the front office staff. Fran explains further how the system has benefited these staff, and the people whose calls they take:
“We have two staff members in the admin office who are responsible for handling calls, and with the old NEC they were concerned that people were spending far too much time on hold, as we had four incoming lines. With the new Corporate system we have a simple auto attendant with just four options, for example allowing parents to leave a message in a dedicated voicemail box to report an absence. They can now also call a DDI or go to a voicemail box directly, which means that the number of calls which we have to answer directly has reduced and our efficiency has significantly increased.
I asked the girls in the office what they thought of the new system eight months on and they are thrilled with it as it has saved them so much time. I also asked by what percentage they thought efficiency had improved and they said 100%! You can’t ask for more than that.”
Planning is the key to success
There is a lot of truth in the quote that there’s ‘no substitute for good planning’ and Woolmer Hill Technology College has certainly demonstrated this. Fran knew what the school required and, having created a ‘tick list’ of all the requirements, eventually brought it down to a simple decision, as only Corporate could tick every box, as she concludes:
“Lots of thought went into this project. We worked with Corporate to define exactly what we needed - and at the end of the day we got what we wanted, with the right level of functionality, and we are using it all. Corporate’s sales staff are very knowledgeable and their technical guys provide just the right level of information. We needed to feel confident that they understood our requirements when we were explaining what we wanted, but without being blinded with too much ‘technical’ speak.
Installation was seamless, with no disruption at all, and the user training we received was very good. We’ve had no complaints at all since the OfficeServ system was installed, nor have we had any problems. It’s has made a huge difference for us, so we’re very happy, and I would definitely recommend Corporate ICT to other schools.” |
