CAS Project Profiles

Aegis Group plc

Aegis Group plc is a leading marketing services company structured around two core business areas - Aegis Media and Synovate. From its London HQ and multiple satellite buildings spread across the UK Aegis operate a complex communications voice and data network from several service providers.

CAS was engaged by Aegis to undertake a review of this network, spend patterns and potential savings that might be accrued if changes to the format and structure were made. This work culminated in a report and board level analysis for Aegis during which CAS were able to identify several areas that could demonstrate significant savings for just small changes to working practises or to the overall network topology.

CAS continues to work with Aegis on an ad-hoc basis.

Cargill plc

Cargill embarked on a replacement programme for all voice and IT services used by the commodities trading groups. CAS was retained to identify how technology was used, the improvements needed and to develop a plan fro replacement services which met the needs of the business.

The project covered a user requirements analysis and telecommunications services review for all trading and commercial groups based at Cobham, Surrey. The user requirements analysis included:

• Interviews with key heads of desk from the CIS and related trading groups
• Review of desktop and voice technologies in use
• Trading floor area review and recommendations for enhancements
• Defined base of user requirements profiling which allowed Cargill to make sound judgements for technology deployment

The technology review covered many areas:

• Telecommunications core services across the UK including the Meridian PBX network and Cargill private network
• Dealerboard turret system review and recommendations for way forward
• Review of voice recording requirements and future deployment
• Call logging/accounting systems and how departments could make better use of the information
• Business continuity review

The output was presented to the business after which some key decisions have been made including the relocation of the trading business to the City of London.

The technology review identified the technology and services Cargill required for input into the specification phase and to assist with the relocation planning of all trading groups to the City of London.

Church of England

CAS has been working with and assisting the various bodies that make up the Church Commissioners, Archbishops Council, National Church Institutions and The Corporation of the Church House for over 10 years during which time it has completed numerous projects, including:

• the design, specification and implementation of a network for voice and data capabilities for over 550 persons over now 5 sites
• relocation and decant on four occasions to facilitate major building improvement works
• the management of all aspects of cabling infrastructure design and implementation associated with these moves
• negotiations with network suppliers and building contractors
• involvement with the Business Continuity strategy
• work with and on behalf of the Church Commissioners' tenants in telecoms matters
• development and delivery of new and emerging technologies - VoIP, Power over Ethernet, voicemail and fax server capabilities.

Additionally CAS owing to its long term relationship and knowledge of the building and network infrastructures has assisted the Church bodies to introduce third party tenants into the framework of the system.

• design, specification and tender analysis for:
  • a 5-site wide area network, network hubs, routers and switches
  • a CAT5/CAT'e' cabling scheme covering two large premises containing 5000 outlets
  • replacement telephony systems at 5 sites with over 800 extensions and associated network connectivity
• project management of the above cabling, WAN, IT equipment and telephone systems as separate, but parallel projects using a central CAS project director with selected project support for the various disciplines

The projects are, at present, in the implementation stages.

Cranfield Institute of Technology

The initial requirement was a feasibility study for the replacement of the Campus telephone system. A telecommunications review covered all buildings, existing technologies and future strategy, including:

• data networking via the PABX
• options for private network connections to three other sites
• use of ISDN

CAS provided a report covering technologies, management process and short term actions. A separate report covered telephony charges and recommendations for the use of network service providers. Following the review finalisation CAS was retained for the project management phase, which included a fibre-optic, campus-wide network infrastructure.
A key similarity to the PRL project was the discussions held with the Institute's representatives, including:

• discussions with technical development personnel
• liaison with selected professors, taking on board their requirements
• listening to the Institute's demand for technology development whilst concentrating on the business requirement

Direct Rooms

CAS initially prepared the business plan and feasibility study for a new dot com start up, in the travel sector. This has developed and CAS is currently retained to implement the business plans:

• Website design and hosting

• Recruitment of management and operational staff

• Establish business procedures and processes

• Establish payment systems

• Negotiate and establish contracts with business partners

• Marketing

• Monitoring and fine tuning of business processes and resource levels

The business goes live as a soft launch in Q3 2000, with a rapid development plan in Q4, once elevation against the business plan has been successfully completed.

Duke Energy International

Conducting a refurbishment within a single floor of a building more than 70 years old, supporting all existing services, upgrading trader voice and IT services was a challenge. Duke Energy wished to expand their London trading floor and provide for more staff within the same overall building space.

CAS managed the team to effect the overall technology change and staff relocation programme to include:

• User and business review by interviewing heads of business and key trading floor representatives
• Advice on how the trading floor area should be set up including location of business units, market price display options, desking, cabling and environmental issues
• Audit of voice systems, cabling, IT infrastructure and server deployment including recommendations for continued use and expansion/upgrade of current technology platforms
• Working as part of the building refurbishment team to represent all IT and telecommunications services for the successful implementation
• Responsibility for the physical relocation of all IT and telecommunications desktop equipment to fall in line with a complex schedule of moves on the trading floor and support areas with minimum downtime
• Strategy, design and project management for the continued use of voice systems for the whole site (150 users) split between the PBX and Dealerboard systems Success

The analysis of user requirements directly affected key decisions on trading room design, resulting in significant cost savings and re-allocation of budget to match the needs of the traders. The implementation of new voice and IT systems was completed with minimum disruption through a number of staff moves before the final, new trading environment was completed.

Global Energy Company

A global energy trading company acquired the famous metal trading company Metallgesellschaft plc, and needed to move them from the City into their new Corporate HQ in Victoria. At the time MG plc was being purchased they themselves were also acquiring another company.

The project covered all aspects of audit, technology review, planning and project management of trading services relocation to include:

• User requirements and trading review for all voice services (two companies)
• Undertake an audit and produce records of all existing services, external lines, ring downs and hoot circuits based around the IPC dealerboard system
• Specific attention to the vital links to the London Metals Exchange
• Review of new space requirements at the new European HQ in London, work with trading groups to co-ordinate the moves of staff into the new environment
• Detailed review of trader voice requirements for all sections affected by takeover of MG Metals including Industrial Markets, FX trading and Energy desks
• Working closely with suppliers of new trader voice systems including BT dealerboard services Success

Having documented all of the trading and voice systems, CAS then arranged the relocation of all these services to the new building and, with the team, completed the move of the metals and commodity trading groups into the 500 position trading floor seamlessly and on time.

HFC Bank

CAS was requested by HFC Bank to install a two site voice system, capable of providing telephony and call centre technology. The project included:

• detailed design
• specification and evaluation
• project management
• support for development of call centre technology to meet customer needs

Since this date CAS has been retained on a number of voice communication projects and has recently project managed the expansion of Integrated Voice Response (IVR) and Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) in the call centre environment. This included:

• analysis of business trends
• effect on PABX systems and planned introduction of new technology
• development of call centre system functionality
• responsibility for delivering the project on time

mhs Homes

A Housing Society with one of the largest growing commercial businesses for housing repairs and projects. A diverse company based in the Medway area requiring modern call centre, telephony and IT infrastructure services for its new Head Office project. CAS scope covered IT and Telecoms services, plus planning for migration of all ICT services and staff. Items completed to date include:

• User and business requirements analysis covering all areas within the business across 13 sites
• Development of procurement strategy for IT and Telecommunications services
• Migration strategy for staff relocation from 10 sites into 2 sites, with one central contact centre
• Design and planning of external network services from British Telecom and Telewest to include diverse routing
• New call centre, telephony and IT services design for a new 300 seat site in Chatham
• IT network and cabling infrastructure planning and specification
• IP telephony design and RFI to all main suppliers of converged solutions

Innovene

Innovene was created as a separate corporate entity following the spin-off of BP's chemicals facilities. With a turnover in excess of $9bn per annum, and 8,000 staff spread across 40 sites in Europe, U.S. and Asia, Innovene is the 4th largest global Chemicals company. In December 2005 Innovene was bought by Ineos, a major player in the Chemicals and Refining market. CAS has provided the following services beginning in January 2005, continuing through 2006:

• Request for Quotation development, evaluation and contract negotiation for a managed IT VPN Wide Area Network service to cover 36 sites, including network, security, remote access and VPN design
• Scope of works definition and service level agreement development for vendor IT WAN services
• Preparation and specification for witness testing of the core VPN network based on Internet tunnels (IPSec) with state of the art Cisco routers at each site
• Project management over various sub-projects playing a leading role in the central IT project office to include:
  • consistent, full time attendance from pre-rollout through to completion
  • responsibility for control of budgets for all IT WAN and local desktop services rollout to all 8,000 staff
  • performing customer facing project management position for several site changeovers from Legacy to new IT WAN and desktop
• Management of the telecoms novation project where all regional and site-based service contracts were novated/renegotiated to become an Innovene procured service, moving away from being shared with BP
• Development of a corporate Voice strategy to include:
  • definition of current voice systems and services inventory across Europe and US
  • VoIP review and potential to utilise/leverage new IT WAN infrastructure
  • production of a Request for Information (RFI) sent out to several suppliers for providing a managed service
  • continued review of cost base, business case documentation and preparation for next phases for voice procurement

 Thames Water Utilities

CAS has worked with Thames Water Utilities TWU for over 16 years and undertaken a number of vastly differing projects which have enabled CAS to understand the complexity of TWU as a client.

These range from a great many specific works associated with the voice and now converged communications network through to managing global upgrades to the Checkpoint firewall security and Microsoft Service Pack roll outs.

CAS has also been involved with the acquisition and disposal of various 3rd party companies and the process of due diligence from a broad telecoms perspective.

Additionally CAS has played a key role in many Business Continuity exercises conducted by TWU on different facets of the business and conducts electrical safety inspections for numerous radio and telemetry sites throughout the TWU domain.

Tristar Cars

CAS have worked with Tristar Cars since 2004 to develop and project manage the installation of a hybrid telephony solution based upon a Philips Sopho IPS system with a 50 position contact centre over two sites with a mixture of TDM and IP screen based positions. A further 100 extensions for back office and fleet facilities have been provided again a mixture of TDM and IP handsets used dependent on the location. Tasks included:

• Carry out a review of all existing telephony services
• To determine the user requirements and feasibility of upgrade and probable replacement of telephony systems and provide consultancy services to complete the project
• User requirements analysis to cover key business units to identify the needs of Tristar Cars staff for telephony services with emphasis on key business functions
• Brief review of current IT network capability for converged network solution assessment " Assessment of current telephony and cost analysis for replacement options
• Design, specification of requirements and tendering exercise for replacement telephony services
• Tender evaluation and contract negotiation assistance
• Project management services to fall in line with Tristar Cars requirements

Tristar Cars are one of the most prestigious and largest of the UK's chauffeur drive companies in its sector with a 300-plus-vehicle fleet that completes in excess of 24,000 journeys every month, and over 10 million miles a year. Tristar directly employ 350 staff across their two operational hubs in London and Manchester. They also have long-term partnerships with trusted regional and international affiliates.

Their business is a 24 hours a day, seven days a week operation and they work extensively for major corporations, city institutions, airlines and executives, individuals and their families.

Tristar pioneered door-to-door limousine services for leading airlines, including a revolutionary in-car check-in. All chauffeurs have real-time travel and itinerary information relayed silently en route via a Personal Digital Assistant.

Additional facilities managed by CAS were the provision of ISDN and VPN network services, SMS service, voice recording and physical cabling aspects.

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)

Complete OJEC process for replacement PBX/voice services for the main call centre at Cheltenham for accepting UK and International student enrolment enquiries and dealing with Universities across the UK.

CAS was awarded the project to assist UCAS through a formal process. This included:

• An options appraisal review for traditional, IT enabled and IP telephony options to meet the business and user requirements of UCAS
• Assistance through official OJEC notice publication and evaluation
• Production of the contractual and technical aspects of the Specification document issued to suppliers as part of the OJEC restricted procedure
• Development of evaluation criteria and evaluation of technical and costing elements for a new contact centre and telephony support services /applications including:
  • Workforce management package
  • Media gateway
  • Voice Recording
  • Agent screen capture
  • Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
  • Management Information System (MIS)
  • IP Telephony (VoIP)
  • Auto attendant
  • Inter-Active Voice Response
  • Voice Mail
  • Call Logging

The supplier was chosen for this project following a rigorous evaluation and site visits to reference sites.

Following a successful implementation, the "Clearing Period" in August (A- level results day) resulted in a record number of over 15,000 calls passing through the contact centre with the least number of aborted calls compared to previous clearing days.

More projects are available by following this link