Capital Solutions is Scotland's leading independent office equipment and document solutions provider. Capital was established in 1979, has over 150 staff in 4 offices located in Edinburgh, Galashiels, Glasgow and  Aberdeen and has approximately 60 locally based service engineers.

They are at the forefront of providing the best range of copiers / multi-functional devices (mfds) and printers from Ricoh and HP - two of the largest IT companies in the world. They also specialise in print / scan technology and electronic document management and have a Professional Services division who can audit the efficiency and cost of your document processes.

The Challenge

Capital?s current telephone system was an over worked traditional PBX which had served them well for 12 years. However it was soon to be an 'end of life' system with little or no chance of expansion or flexibility, where parts and support would be limited; now more than ever Capital needed a system that would grow with them as the business grows.

Continual expansion with more offices meant Capital needed a system that could cope with the capacity, be future proofed with a supplier that could manage a major implementation with  complex inter branch routing. 

Capital's 31,257 sq ft head office at McDonald Road, Edinburgh is the best digital office equipment showroom in Scotland and it was important to choose the best telephone system to match.

Capital has enjoyed a close relationship with Commsworld dating back to the mid 1990s. Staff from both companies have worked together for
many shared clients over the years and have teamed up on occasion to hold joint events and marketing initiatives. Because of this trusted relationship and the 
knowledge of Commsworld's expertise, Capital felt in safe hands with such a critical, complex project with peace of mind it would be delivered on time and within budget.

Detail of Solution Requirements

After exploring all the possibilities with Commsworld, Capital Solutions chose the latest Mitel VoIP 3300 ICP telephone system.

This was a complex project that took five months from the initial meetings through to the live roll-out. Commsworld's project management team worked hard to ensure that every eventuality was covered and the whole project ran to a tight schedule.

Not only was Capital implementing a whole new system but all of the branch circuits and four new servers were upgraded simultaneously, therefore it was paramount that everything ran smoothly and seamlessly.  

The Mitel system runs from the Head Office in  Edinburgh with three remote centres based at Capital's Aberdeen, Glasgow and Galashiels offices connected via new national Ethernet, which now  has enough bandwidth to deliver all of  Capital's applications and more.

The central Mitel system runs call centre integrated services for the service desk which enables Capital Solutions to efficiently monitor, manage and route calls and can also be covered by remote agents. All remote numbers are situated on SIP trunks which are routed through the central office, this simplifies Capital's infrastructure by converging all traffic onto a resilient IP backbone in Glasgow. Furthermore it is essential when implementing a new communications infrastructure on this scale that everyone feels comfortable and confident with the changes. Capital Solutions ICT department were fully trained in the day-to-day management of
the new system and call traffic in addition to all employees receiving full training of the telephony system which ensured Capital were using the phones effectively and efficiently.

After a smooth migration, the new system offered new telephony functions and greater flexibility accessible to all users, regardless of their location. 
Improved voicemail facility means voicemail messages can be sent as sound files attached to emails and received on a company PC or Smartphone.

Due to increased functionality of the Mitel IP solution, users can now hot-desk from any branch in the company, using the same extension number. We also took the decision that to facilitate the new Telecoms System and ongoing IT projects that we should upgrade all our Branch Circuits. 

This took the complexity of the project to a new level and we knew that Project Managing this was paramount, ensuring that everything fell into place with minimal disruption to the Company. 

This was the main reason that we turned to Commsworld and to be honest I wouldn't have entrusted this project to anybody else. With past experience and working with their engineers I knew they could deliver the project  on time and within budget.

The success of the project can be measured by how the new solution went in seamlessly as far as end users are concerned. It had no disruption on the productivity of  the company, this was a key objective from day one. All the major work took place out with office hours and we also ran systems in parallel to facilitate this.

Solution at a Glance

• Mitel 3300 ICP Platform
• Contact Centre
• SIP
• National Ethernet
• Commsworld Billing
• Voice and Data Convergence

Business Benefits

• One centralised and standardised communications network for all branches via head office.
• Lower PBX costs.
• Centralised telephony operation and control.
• A flexible solution that will grow with the business.
• Field workers able to operate seamlessly.
• Increased efficiency in call handling.
• Improved customer service.