South Ayrshire Council
South Ayrshire Council, like many other Scottish local authorities, needed to embrace flexible and remote working to help the Council make savings on real estate, travel and communications costs and improve productivity.
The Council also wanted to improve its communication and enhance the services available.
Communication between the Council’s various offices has been expensive, historically. The area covers four dialling codes, and the old system meant calls were being made across conventional cost structures.
In addition, the system offered no additional services, such as instant messaging, presence, audio, video or web conferencing. Modernising work practices means that employees are becoming more accustomed to ‘hot desking’, working from home, or from a variety of different Council sites.
Exactive helped South Ayrshire Council prepare for a significant upgrade which would involve the introduction of Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2, branded locally within the Council as Prism. For the South Ayrshire team, this involved everything from arranging new telephone lines to upgrading PC hardware with additional memory and greater power, where necessary.
“With Prism – our name for Microsoft OCS – we can really begin to reap the benefits of flexible working, and do it properly and efficiently, which benefits both the organisation and our employees. This is a real attraction.” John Porter, Service Development Manager, South Ayrshire Council
Within 2 months of trailing this new way of working, the council rolled out a new communications system to 3,000 users. Wherever possible, the Council and its employees benefit from improved flexibility such as ‘hot desking’ or working from home, thereby freeing up facilities and space within the Council property portfolio. Operating costs have been reduced, especially in telephony, and travel costs are reducing significantly, which also contributes to the Council’s carbon management programme.
“This was a significant, complex project, the largest of its type in the UK, and has been a huge success with South Ayrshire Council deserving a lot of credit for choosing the right solution and working hard with us to make it happen.” Robert Hutchinson, Director, Exactive