Foroige is a leading youth organisation in Ireland, working with young people since 1952. They work with over 50,000 young people aged 10-18 each year through Volunteer-led clubs and Staff-led Youth Projects.
The Challenge
A legacy, multi-vendor solution powered Foroige’s business communication. Tasked with managing an out-of-warranty, on-premise phone system that was proving to be time-consuming and expensive, Foroige sought a phone system that would enable their workforce and consolidate their multiple sites in one manageable solution. "We looked into a cloud solution that was manageable with multiple failover options and dynamic redundancy", recalls Adrian O'Donnell.
"There was pressure to deliver it in 5 days; IP Telecom advised that it was an unusual lead time but gave us requirements to expedite the process. We provided the MAC address and user list; under pressure, the IP Telecom team delivered within a few days."
Adrian O'Donnell
IT Manager, Foroige
The Solution
Foroige first heard about IP Telecom during the IP Telecom-sponsored Park West Run. As the nation came to grips with the COVID-19 pandemic, IP telecom's timely radio announcement, which offered Irish businesses a no-touch, lockdown-compliant, installation solidified their decision to migrate to IP Telecom's cloud-hosted platform.
The fast implementation of lockdown measures to battle the COVID-19 pandemic rendered many business's systems and process ineffective. Foroige were no different, and they needed to act fast to establish a business continuity plan that addressed the sudden change in business practices.
"There was pressure to deliver it in 5 days; IP Telecom advised that it was an unusual lead time but gave us requirements to expedite the process. We provided the MAC address and user list; under pressure, the IP Telecom team delivered within a few days", recalls Adrian O' Donnell, Foroige's IT Manager.
Foroige selected our IPT Hosted Phone solution. The IP Telecom implementation team communicated a roadmap that split the onboarding process into two phases. The first phase saw the re-configuration of Foroige's pre-owned handsets, the porting of their existing phone lines to IP Telecom's network, and deployment of softphone apps to Foroige's newly remote workforce - enabling them to make and receive calls from home.
All users were assigned an extension number that facilitated cost free internal calls – despite remote working. For the second phase of the project, IP Telecom guided Foroige during their lockdown driven self-installation.
"From the project coordinator to the support team, we got the first-class service. With our second site, they helped with the configuration of handsets, which was then shipped to us for a simple plug-in, with no delays, in a straightforward process”, recalls Adrian.
The Benefits
COVID-19 instigated a transition to work-from-home for Foroige. IP Telecom provided softphone apps that employees downloaded to their devices, enabling them to make and take calls anywhere – all calls via the Hosted Phone System.
The organisation eliminated costly monthly line rental by moving their existing numbers to IP Telecom's platform. A cloud-based solution, with extra functionality, replaced the legacy phone system. IP Telecom's user-friendly portal has massively reduced the workload of their IT Team and eliminated the maintenance costs that their legacy on premise system incurred.
Moving to IP Telecom has transformed Foroige's communications infrastructure and improved the efficiency of their team. Their IT Admin no longer has to deal with the complexity of engaging multi-vendors and managing multi-layered systems; such is the benefit of choosing IP Telecom as their one-stop shop for business communications.
The result is a convenient and cost-effective phone system that empowers them to deliver their services in a fast-changing society.
"We were reluctant at first, but VoIP is a must-have in this day-and-age, and I would advise anyone to get ahead by switching to VoIP now," says Adrian.