Replacing the Telephone System at QUT

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Replacing the Telephone System at QUT
Jouni Stroja Ross Gorham
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Agenda

• Business need
• Process used
• Outcome
• Experiences to date
• Outstanding issues
• Future outlook

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QUT Sites
Caboolture Community Campus
Carseldine Campus
Kelvin Grove Campus
126 Margaret St
In scope
Out of scope
Printery (Milton)
Gardens Point Campus
Peel St
Merivale St
In Progress
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Business Need

• Reliable telephone service (existing system was
  gt10yrs old) - equivalent/better functionality
• More capacity at Kelvin Grove and Carseldine
  campuses
• Services able to be distributed regardless of
  location ie. improved networking
• Ability to better link telephony into the IT
  environment (particularly for call centres)
• More easily managed and affordable solution
• Well supported solution
• Readily expandable service with a viable future

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Telephone Service Stats

• 6,000 extensions (25 digital)
• 4 major sites 4 minor sites
• 6 separate call centre queues (ITS Helpdesk,
  Student Computing Helpdesk, Student Information
  Centre, QTIX, Office of International Students
  Facilities Management Helpdesk)
• 2600 voice mailboxes in use

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Process Used

• Engage consultants to assess situation (incl
  Interviewing stakeholders for reqts) and report
  on options, preferred option and migration
  strategy
• Report due end January 2002
• Develop tender documentation to acquire solution
• Evaluation process (TCO 5 yrs)
• Implement April 2003 or August 2003

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Outcome

• Elected to go to tender for a replacement system
  or managed service
• Engaged same consultant to assist with
  development of tender specification
• Tender closed in mid Oct 2002
• Contract finalised Mar 2003
• Implementation in April 2003

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Solution Adopted

• Alcatel 4400 PCX with integrated voice mail and
  ACD (assessed as a conservative risk but with a
  progressive IP path forward)
• Implementation to be scheduled over 4 weekends in
  April but reduced to 1 weekend (Carseldine - 350
  extensions) plus Easter (remainder)
• Existing system to be maintained in parallel for
  roll back if necessary

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New System
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Experiences to Date

• The underpinning technology has operated well
• Dual jumpering did not work for us
• Processes for fault handling (particularly large
  volumes of faults) are essential
• Organisation coordination of technical
  resources are critical
• Underestimated the scale of the change process
• Underestimated the training load
• Call centres should have been treated separately
  ie. with dedicated resources

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.More Experiences

• Underestimated the impact on analogue phone users
• Underestimated the dirtiness of the existing
  PABX data (incl. Cable records)
• May have been better starting from scratch to
  collect data
• Need to allow lots of time for data
  collection/conversion
• Division between data skilled staff telephony
  skilled people is still evident
• Doing each site separately would have been less
  stressful

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.Still More Experiences

• Need to have in-house technical expertise on
  all aspects of the system prior to installation
• Be wary of 3rd party arrangements
• Essential to assess features at a micro level
• Equivalent to rolling out 6,000 desktop PCsand
  individually tailoring each screen environment
• Ensure fault handling SLA in place for period
  prior to final acceptance
• Take care with s/w licence arrangements and
  server creeping disease

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Outstanding Issues

• Voicemail is not seamless between sites
• Call Centre user interface is less functional
  than previous ACD system
• TIMS needs to be implemented for both network
  management and billing (separate project)
• Soft phones have not been tested/deployed
• Final acceptance testing to occur
• Attendant consoles to be set up with appropriate
  PCs (check compatibility!)
• Bedding in processes for fault handling/AMCs

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Future Outlook

• Bedding in existing system and making staff aware
  of capabilities
• Investigation of IP telephony as a standard
  implementation for new buildings (cost/benefit
  will be critical)
• Investigation of DECT (wireless phones)
• Investigation of 5 digit numbering system
• Investigation of integrating voice mail with
  current email repository
• Investigation of integrating Caboolture Community
  Campus
• Investigation into phasing out analog handsets

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Questions?