How IP Office centralised and supported Edinburgh Leisure’s growing demand for a secure and synchronised network across 25 sites.

Edinburgh Leisure Ltd is the independent management company set up to control all the sports facilities on behalf of City of Edinburgh Council.  They currently control 26 sites and facilities including flagship locations such as Meadowbank Stadium and Royal Commonwealth Pool, along with tennis courses, golf courses and bowling greens etc. 

It is essential for the financial control of the whole organisation that they are able to capture all customer transactions in real time as members of the public pay to use the various facilities.

Overview of Solution
What was required was a data based Wide Area Network linking all the 25 remote sites back to the Head Office function.  Whilst the initial bandwidths required for the financial application were relatively low, there was a growing understanding within the IT function of Edinburgh Leisure that there were other data and potentially, voice, requirements.

The Challenge
The WAN for the financial application is key critical.  However, given multi staff based across multiple sites, Edinburgh Leisure wanted to introduce centralised E-mail and control all Internet access through the firewalled Head Office.  In order to support their growing Internet and E-mail demands they had already invested in an Internet VPN across 6 sites.  Finally, there was a recognised future desire that it would be beneficial to have an integrated inter-site voice system as well.

Detail of Solution
Edinburgh Leisure went out to tender with a network design that had originally been designed by Commsworld.  The requirements focussed upon the data application and the required bandwidths.

We engaged Thus for the provision of Leased Line circuits as the most cost effective solution for the WAN.  Some sites were scoped at 2MB with the majority at 128kb as they are smaller sites with only 1 to 6 staff.  Whilst it would have been an easy option to install a network consisting of Cisco routers throughout, being aware of the other future desires for E-mail, Internet and Voice, Commsworld recognised that a better solution would consist of the Avaya IP Office as the data gateway device, using the built-in routing capability.

The initial installation would consist of installing 25 Avaya IP Office devices at the remote sites to be set up as data routers only, connected to the leased lines leading back to the Head Office. 

This delivers the required functionality, as well as bringing on-site a telephony solution for the time that the remote site needs to change its system.  Experience has shown that this happens on a fairly regular basis, and in the past, site managers have been able to make their own choices on telephony kit and therefore the group has ended up with a raft of incompatible, non network-able products.

At the Head Office, they are also not ready to change their voice system, so to support the data requirements currently; we are installing a robust Cisco Router connecting all the WAN circuits.  Once the data network is running and stable, the next development will be to increase bandwidths to support E-mail and Internet usage.  At the same time, some sites will be changing their voice systems to use the IP Office at the local sites for voice.  This will all be followed in the future by a change of Telephony at Head Office to IP office and then integrating all the remote sites for voice and data.

The Results
The Commsworld solution answers all the current data requirements now, as well as preparing for the future introduction of Voice over IP.  The end goal of having a fully integrated network for voice and data will greatly enhance the working environment, functionality and productivity across the whole of the Edinburgh Leisure organisation.

What makes it Special
Commsworld were competing against BT and PC Business World, both of whom submitted solutions based on a purely Cisco router network.  This made their offerings very cost effective, but had no built-in flexibility to deliver future functionality without major upgrade costs.

The Commsworld solution allows Edinburgh Leisure to upgrade WAN bandwidths when they are able; activate voice functionality at the remote sites as and when required, for very little capital outlay.  Most remote sites require nothing more than the VC module, some sites require an extra phone module, and it is only the Head Office site that will require a new IP Office when they are ready to introduce VOIP across the WAN.

Why did they chose Commsworld
Commsworld have worked with Edinburgh Leisure for many years supporting them with various different voice and data requirements.  At the end of the day we were able to produce a cost effective WAN solution that took into account the current critical data business requirements, as well as fully understanding the future changing demands of Edinburgh Leisure to deliver a fully integrated network.

We listened to their needs and responded in an informed and quality fashion.

Commsworld introduced Edinburgh Leisure to the IP Office solution as part of our ongoing account development.  We were keen to keep them abreast of the latest trends in communication solutions.  On Edinburgh Leisure’s part, they were very impressed with the integrated functionality of the IP Office as a Voice and Data solution.