The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) is the National Conservatoire of Wales and a centre of excellence for the performing arts, an institution of national significance and a higher education institution unique to Wales.

RWCMD specialises in training students for professional performance and related careers. It not only contributes to the cultural identity of Cardiff but Wales as a whole, and attracts some of the most gifted students from around the world. Past students include Sir Anthony Hopkins and Gavin & Stacey stars Ruth Jones & Rob Brydon.

CASe STuDy:Royal Welsh Collegeof Music and DramaMARKeT: eDuCATIoN SoLuTIoN: IP PHoNe SySTeM

Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama gains a brilliantly simple IP Phone Solution with ShoreTel

Probably the best managed project and certainly the smoothest I have ever been involved in, I can’t talk highly enough of Voyager’s project delivery capabilities, they were excellent.”

Gareth Tottle, Information Systems Manager, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

“

The Royal Welsh College of Music

and Drama is currently undergoing

a £22.5 million development project

to build a suite of world-class

training and performance facilities

for musicians, actors, theatre

designers and stage managers.

With over 600 students and an

events calendar that encompasses

over 300 public performances each

year, the college is embarking on

an exciting transition to become a

World Class Conservatoire.

SoLuTIoN PRovIDeD IN PARTNeRSHIP WITH

CASe STuDy:Royal Welsh Collegeof Music and DramaMARKeT: eDuCATIoN SoLuTIoN: IP PHoNe SySTeM

“

“

“

The Challenge

Following the approval of a new five year

strategic plan in June 2008 the college

wanted to significantly advance the profile

and positioning of RWCMD amongst its peers

and specialist art schools both in the uK

and internationally. The purpose was to

significantly enhance the quality of services

for all stakeholders.

The challenge for the RWCMD was to ensure

their IT and communications systems

complemented the college’s strategic plan

and provide an IT infrastructure of ‘high

availability’, ‘fit for purpose’ and ‘flexible’ in

its provision. The existing BT Meridian

telephone system could no longer fulfil the

requirements of the College. Gareth Tottle

Information Systems Manager for RWCMD

decided that a new IP-based solution was

needed to ensure the IT infrastructure met the

aspirations of the college.

The College is going through the biggest

investment programme in its history to

become a World Class Conservatoire; the old

communications infrastructure would not

support these aspirations. The old phone

system was difficult to manage and time

consuming. We wanted a system that could

provide the most cost effective solution,

not necessarily the cheapest, but provide us

with all the communication features that we

desired whilst giving best value for RWCMD

both now and as we scale.”

The college approached various

voIP vendors and evaluated their systems

for reliability, scalability, simplicity and a

robust feature set. voyager Networks were

invited to tender for the solution and proposed

a ShoreTel unified Communications (uC)

solution. ShoreTel was chosen due to its modular

architecture, flexibility and ease of use. In

addition to these, many features that RWCMD

required were included in the ShoreTel system

as standard therefore the total cost of

ownership was lower than its competitors.

The Solution

voyager designed the ShoreTel system on 150

users, ensuring a fully resilient and scalable uC

solution that would seamlessly integrate with

Microsoft applications allowing users to easily

access and manage their own communications

across all of their devices.

The new solution comprised of various

ShoreGear voice switches. These voice

switches plug into a Cisco LAN and support

both IP and analogue devices phones, and are

deployed in an ‘N+1’ architecture, so that if a

switch fails or is isolated by a network fault,

the phones automatically failover to another

voice switch at the site. The resiliency of the

phone system was a key requirement for the

College and made ShoreTel stand out from the

competition because of its unique approach.

one of the things that really appealed to

me when looking at the ShoreTel system was

the whole N+1 solution, where comparing to

other systems if you wanted to add

resilience you’d need to add additional

servers, costs inevitably increased. The N+1

architecture gives RWCMD the resiliency but

without the costs that you would have with

other vendors”

The ShoreTel IP system was

deployed within a week and a half, and

configured for 150 users initially. The

deployment of the system went extremely

smoothly with the help of voyager and

RWCMD staff working closely together.

The project delivery team from voyager

were extremely helpful, at no time did I get

the impression that voyager were not able

to assist any changes that we wanted. As the

project adapted and changed, voyager were

brilliant in accommodating any twists or

turns. The success of this project was

undoubtedly down to the technical ability

and management of the project and how we

& voyager worked together “

Contact us www.voyager.net.uk or call us on 02476 417 417T

ARTIST IMPReSSIoNS oF THe NeW FACILITIeS AT THe RoyAL WeLSH CoLLeGe oF MuSIC AND DRAMA

“

“

“

As part of the training voyager suggested a

‘Train, the Trainer’ approach, where department

representatives become the focal points for

the training and support. This meant whilst

users were getting familiar with the system

there was always support available both from

the department representatives, the IT depart-

ment and voyager engineers. on the go-live

date voyager provided ‘flaw walkers’ on-site

during the first few days to ensure smooth

migration- although prior to the go-live date

staff had been using the system internally for

a number of days. Although training wasn’t

given to all users, most found the system very

easy to use and picked up using the system

straight away.

It is so straight forward to use, we picked

up a lot before we had the training and so

we found that we were able to ask a lot of

questions during the training session on

how to do some of the more advanced

features. It was so easy for all users to

pick up and certainly coming from a non

telephony background the administration

around the system and the interface is so

intuitive means it has saved us a huge

amount of time.

The Benefits

RWCMD has already realised significant cost

savings and benefits from the new ShoreTel

system. All of the college users now have a

single interface that is easy for everyone, from

receptionists to lecturers to use. The college

is also making use of ShoreTel’s Hunt Groups

capabilities to make sure that all phone calls

for a specific group are always answered. This

ensures someone from a department is always

contactable as calls are automatically routed

to multiple extensions depending

on availability.

The flexibility of the system has also been a

major benefit to users. With the ShoreTel

system, any user can login to a phone using

their personal extension to make a call or

access voicemail. And with ShoreWare Per-

sonal Call Manager integrated with Microsoft

outlook, voicemail notifications are delivered

direct to the user’s inbox. Furthermore, the

college has incorporated the ShoreTel system

directory into its desktop Web application

– enabling users to search for contacts and

‘Click to dial’ direct from their PCs.

Amanda Townsend, executive

Administrator for RWCMD also commented

“I think it’s brilliant and it’s good to be in the

21st Century at last! Having to monitor and

handle the calls of two other people as well

as my own, the Shoretel system has

completely simplified this process. I am

able to continually monitor both calls and

voicemails for all three extensions easily.

The way the system is connected to outlook

and my contacts has certainly enhanced and

simplified the way in which I work. I think

it’s fair to say that I’m impressed!

The ShoreTel solution represents an

excellent platform for further development to

meet RWCMD long term plans. Together with

voyager and ShoreTel, RWCMD is looking to

expand the system to the Box office for the

300+ events held by the RWCMD each year.

our staff love the simplicity of the

ShoreTel system, this has helped us to

transform our communication services. I

can safely say this was probably the best

managed project and certainly the

smoothest I have ever been involved in, I

can’t talk highly enough of the ShoreTel

solution and certainly voyager’s project

delivery capabilities, they were excellent”

One of the things that really appealed to me when looking at the ShoreTel system was the whole N+1 solution, where comparing to other systems if you wanted to add resilience you’d need to add additional servers, costs inevitably increased. The N+1 architecture gives RWCMD the resiliency but without the costs that you would have with other vendors”

Gareth Tottle, Information Systems Manager, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

“

Network InfrastructureFrom consultancy and design through to implementation and management.

Professional ServicesAn addition to your IT department offering you flexible, highly professional Network specialists.

Managed Network ServicesComplete management of your Communications. Network giving you the time to manage your business.

Unified Communications Simplifying and integrating all forms of communications in view to reducing response times and increasing efficiencies.

SecuritySecuring your entire network at every level for piece of mind and protection to your critical network.

MobilitySeamless integration across all your communication devices allowing real mobile working.

Our strategic partners.

The value to our customers is our expertise. We have invested heavily in our people so they become experts in the uK’s leading IT vendors products and services. our established and trusted partnerships along with the highest vendor accreditations ensure our customers receive the highest levels of support and advice with the most advanced and innovative solutions.

voyager Networks helps organisations achieve growth, operational cost reduction and increased staff productivity through advanced communications technologies.

The Unified Communications Experts.

vo

y | RA

Se01

Voyager Networks Limitedvoyager House, Sir William Lyons Road, university of Warwick Science Park, Coventry, Cv4 7eZ. 02476 417 417 02476 414 817 info@voyager.net.uk www.voyager.net.uk

© voyager Networks Limited. This document is the Intellectual Property of voyager Networks Limited. Its contents should not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior permission of voyager.

T F E W

voyager has implemented a variety of solutions, many of which are pioneering in their sector. For more information on these projects please contact us using the methods below.

Talk to our team today on 02476 417 417 or visit us online at www.voyager.net.uk