Managing the telecommunications set up of multiple remote sites can be a major challenge, especially when local staff are not telecoms experts themselves. So a leading managed pub company commissioned Panama Communications to attend all of their outlets to complete a full telecoms inventory and report back their findings.
Situation
The client required 220 outlets to be visited in a 9 week timescale and an accurate inventory of telecoms equipment prepared. Visits were required Tuesday-Friday to avoid peak trading periods and staff days off. The outlets were spread across the country, from Plymouth to Glasgow.
Panama Communications’ Approach
Each site was contacted by Panama Communications and visited via a planned roll out methodology. Prior planning meant there were very few ‘aborted’ visits on site even within the night club estate. A consistent feedback approach was maintained throughout, with Panama project management checking every site return before forwarding on to the client. The visit consisted of checking all telecoms within the site and detailing all PSTN/ISND line usage, checking quality and make of handsets, switch systems, PDQ machines, alarm systems. Engineers also replaced some fly lead cabling on all PDQ base stations to aid future maintenance.
Results
As a result of the visits a number of key benefits were obtained
- Significant line rental cost savings were achieved. 612 PSTN and ISDN lines were ceased, saving an estimated at £92,000 annually The average line saving per site was 2.8 lines. Two sites achieved savings of 10 lines.
- Invaluable site information inventory to aid billing, remote maintenance and future telecoms expenditure.
- Fly leads were replaced where necessary on all PDQ base stations to NTE boxes.
- Irregularities within certain sites were highlighted and recorded for head office use.
- A number of on site support issues were dealt with during the visit.
The investment in the telecoms inventory project returned a payback within 6 months. The main business sponsor was “Very, very pleased.”
