Good for business, good for the environment
Lichfield, 16 November 2011 – A Video Conferencing solution from NextiraOne, Europe’s leading expert in communications services, is helping British Waterways to achieve efficiency gains, save travel time and expense, cut costs and protect the environment.
NextiraOne Logo
NextiraOne Logo
NextiraOne has implemented the new Video System across nine British Waterways sites and also helped to re-deploy the existing equipment to smaller sites that previously had no conferencing facilities. This has helped to provide improved facilities in the main sites, extending the system to new locations and preserving previous investments. Based on Cisco Video technology, the new system uses High Definition 40 inch screens to create an outstanding user experience, encouraging staff to make widespread use of the facilities. To ensure a good Return on Investment, British Waterways wanted to ensure that the system would be used as much as possible. The new extended infrastructure enables staff to meet regularly and encourages participation in meetings without the previously associated loss of time and cost of travel.
British Waterways is the public corporation that cares for the 2,200 mile network of canals and rivers in England, Scotland and Wales. Its purpose is to protect the historic waterways and ensure that they can be used for the benefit of the 13 million people and 35,000 boats that use them every year. The organisation has 15 main offices across the UK and a number of smaller sites along the extensive UK canal network. Many of the offices are in strategic locations for the canal network but not necessarily at good transport hubs, sometimes making travel between sites time consuming and expensive.
British Waterways’ staff are able to communicate and collaborate more effectively by Video Conference using the Multi-point Video system. An internal evaluation suggests that the cost savings in travel alone amount to around £200,000 per year.
NextiraOne has worked as British Waterways’ trusted partner for a number of years, having delivered a Voice and Data Infrastructure and with a continuing full Managed Services Agreement to support the infrastructure and deliver end-to-end service. An Operational Support Agreement covers the day-to-day maintenance and repair of the multi-site, multi-vendor voice and data network and also the long-term monitoring and review of its performance.
“NextiraOne has delivered for us in the past and we knew they would do the same on our video project,” said Alan Hill, Telecommunications Manager at British Waterways. “The use of larger screens gives a better user experience and encourages staff to take part. Without the travelling involved in many meetings we find there are fewer cancellations. In addition, the ease of use and our good geographic spread also means that we are able to involve more people and invite experts to join specific meetings.”
Steven Skakel, General Manager, NextiraOne UK & Ireland said: “British Waterways is an excellent example of a company that can draw enormous benefit from Video. With many sites in locations that are not easily accessible, the challenge of getting people together for meetings and the cost in terms of travel expenses and personnel time are significant. Using a Video solution for conferencing and collaboration introduces cost and environmental benefits and significant increased efficiency within the organisation.”
NextiraOne is Europe’s leading expert in communications services and has a direct sales and service presence in 16 countries, serving more than 60,000 customers. The company designs, installs, maintains and supports sustainable solutions to meet the communications needs of its customers - from voice, data and video to mobility, security and applications.
