Rekeep

Problem

Rekeep, one of Italy’s leading Integrated Facility Management and Environmental Services groups, developed an IP-based communication solution with VEM sistemi in response to business continuity and mobility needs for its employees.

The development of the Group’s companies made it necessary to search for highly flexible technological solutions. The cue came with the opening of the third site in Zola Predosa, for which a common architectural system was devised to guarantee integration and centralised management. But that’s not all, as Lucia Bernardini, Head of Network Infrastructure and Information Systems at Rekeep, points out. ‘We were proceeding with an average of two new sites, i.e. small and medium-sized sites distributed across the territory, opened every month.
The problem therefore went far beyond simply choosing a telephone switchboard.
‘Implementing a flexible solution capable of allowing easy integration of new branches into the network could generate a significant reduction in traffic costs, in addition to the expenses during start-up and network management. But the needs also concerned the existing infrastructure: the analogue switchboard in operation, although equipped with advanced functionalities, was not used to its full potential and required continuous external support. ‘We have had to move offices several times in recent years, and the reconfiguration of patches to keep telephone numbers unchanged has always been done with external assistance.

Solution

The company’s growth meant that even operations of this type had to be managed more easily, and only the bundling of telephony in the IP network would allow in-house management, thanks to the high level of expertise of Rekeep’s Information Systems division, which provides information technology services to all group companies. In order to meet these needs, Rekeep turned to VEM sistemi, the group’s technology partner that had already designed the corporate LAN in the past and that, on this occasion too, promptly offered a solution, advising Rekeep on the migration to VoIP technology.

‘Together with VEM, we identified the areas of intervention and made a project and ROI calculation, considering the amortisation of an investment made centrally also to the benefit of peripheral locations and users as fundamental”.
The project involved the implementation of a Cisco Unified Communications solution, supported by Cisco CallManager, the switchboard software that adds innovative features to the features of traditional equipment. The migration to IP telephony initially concerned the three Zola Predosa sites and continued in the newly established branches and sites where, instead of repairing an old, faulty switchboard, a real new technological vision was preferred: in fact, equipping oneself with a multi-service network also means being able to implement an unlimited range of value-added services.

“The switchboard staff achieved a great increase in productivity thanks to the Voice Mail service: calls to unreachable users are forwarded to the mailbox. In addition, all users can check the history of received and unanswered calls, in order to get in touch with customers or colleagues, a feature unthinkable in a PABX environment”.

Rekeep also made available to its employees an online company directory integrated with the Active Directory, with categories of numbers available according to access privileges. Last but not least, the possibility of making conference calls, once limited only to a meeting room and now made available to all devices connected to the IP network, regardless of their location, with a very simplified access and activation method. But that’s not all. ‘’With VEM we have also made VoIP services available from a mobility perspective, with the replacement of Dect devices with a Wi-Fi network and the integration of Nokia dual mode mobile phones.

Many of our employees work off-site: having a single device capable of performing landline, indoor and outdoor mobile phone functions was seen as a no small benefit’’. Also business critical for Rekeep was the continuity of service of the in-house Call Centre, a customer support facility that has evolved, with the VoIP environment, into a 24-hour service with a solid back-up infrastructure. ‘‘In the event of network unavailability, calls are diverted, via service activation, to internal telephones, either physical or software (Cisco IP Phone), depending on whether the operators operate at the premises or remotely, without any difference to the caller”.

Benefits

A success on all fronts, especially because the network infrastructure provided by VEM sistemi allows management of the internal telephone component, which is the responsibility of Information Systems, with immediate intervention times and, of course, a reduction in costs.

‘’Our goal is to migrate all branches to VoIP: after one year of putting the new system into production, we have already identified a significant cost reduction.
The advantage of being able to migrate in a scalable way is really important for us: we do not replace the technology in a massive way because the cost incidence has to be diluted. In a company like ours, the development process is necessarily dictated by specific needs”.

Rekeep has also planned to provide video conferencing over the IP network, a new frontier for modern companies that can combine efficiency with a greater concern for the environment, allowing their employees to travel less by using the most modern means of communication.