The dawn of the hybrid work era, combined with the looming PSTN switch off deadline, have contributed to the accelerated adoption of unified communication as a service (UCaaS). Already worth USD 47.64 billion, the global UCaaS market size is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of around 20.6% between now and 2030.
To meet this growing demand, BT partnered with RingCentral to create its own UCaaS product, BT Cloud Work, provided by the RingCentral platform. With professional services and end-to-end cloud migration support provided by BT. This solution has been helping BT customers move from legacy phone systems to the cloud.
Read on to hear how BT Cloud Work provided by RingCentral benefits organisations, and to hear the story of one global organisation that’s made the switch, ProPharma.
“Cloud Work provides each team with the ability to answer a phone call no matter what’s happening within the data centre. It enables everyone, any patient around Europe, to phone in and have their issues triaged.” Kev Stannard; Service delivery manager, ProPharma
What benefits does BT Cloud Work offer?
As well as moving organisations’ communications over to the cloud ahead of the 2025 PSTN switch off, there are many other benefits to migrating to BT Cloud Work.
- Work from anywhere on any device – With around 40% of working adults now regularly working from home, it pays to have a unified communications system that you can access wherever you are, from any device. Ensure your employees can collaborate effectively with colleagues and customers over phone, video, or instant messaging.
- Save time and focus on your core business – BT can manage the day-to-day maintenance for you, so you can free up time for activities that add more value. You won’t lose control though, since BT Cloud Work comes with robust and easy-to-use admin controls for things like adding new users.
- Save money by bundling IT projects – If you are doing multiple upgrades at once, you can save money. You’ll gain access to 30-40 experts and BT Professional services will plan your digital transformation project from end to end.
- Simplify vendor management – Vendor management is outsourced to BT so you’ll only need to communicate with them when there’s an issue, rather than multiple providers.
- Strengthen security – RingCentral has a highly regarded 7-layer application security architecture built in, and BT can offer network security add ons to keep your digital commerce extra-safe. On top of this, Cloud Work also encrypts your calls.
- Get proactive maintenance – You’ll get automatic updates every 12 weeks with new features, enhancements, bug fixes and tools so you never have to worry about manually managing your communications tech stack again. And with a fully managed IT model, reliability, speed and security are all taken care of too.
How did ProPharma turn service and support around?
ProPharma is the leading global provider of regulatory, clinical, and compliance services for the life sciences industry. It’s a complex business, but one aspect of its work is operating a call centre that provides crucial medication advice – the number you’ll find on the information sheet that comes with all medication. So if a patient or clinician rings ProPharma for advice, it’s critical that its phone system doesn’t fail.
The challenge
Located in rural North Yorkshire, this call centre was previously delivered on ISDN30, a high-performance cable connection. But if that cable got damaged, it would bring down the whole service. There was no disaster recovery system in place and limited backup. Calls could be rerouted to someone’s mobile, but that meant only one call per person could be dealt with at a time, and ProPharma usually deals with several hundred calls per hour.
The solution
Recognising they needed a better business continuity system – as well as greater flexibility for a growing and increasingly remote workforce – they chose to switch to BT Cloud Work. This operates alongside ProPharma’s existing SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) line. So when a call doesn’t get answered or doesn’t connect, it’s automatically diverted to Cloud Work. Through the Cloud Work app, call handlers can then access the same collaboration tools and call management features, no matter where, or on what device, they’re working.
The results
Since transitioning to BT Cloud Work, ProPharma have had three critical outages, and each time, Cloud Work has ensured there was no drop in service. The mobile app has also meant staff can provide a reliable out-of-hours service, and can work remotely without needing to have a business mobile phone. Managers now have visibility of the whole system and can easily route calls, add people to teams, and see where problems are on the network.
“It’s far more flexible and agile, and we can respond far quicker for a better customer experience.”– Kev Stannard, Service delivery manager, ProPharma.
If, like ProPharma, you’re ready to strengthen your communications resilience and enable productive, flexible working for your employees, you can find out more about BT Cloud Work here.
Originally published Nov 06, 2023
