Northern Beaches Council is local government authority located in the northern beaches’ region of Sydney. In 2016 Manly, Pittwater and Warringah councils amalgamated as part of the state governments reduction of local government areas.
Operating with amalgamated workforces resulted in three unified communication (UC) systems inherited from the former councils. These legacy systems presented issues restricting efficient staff communications within one organisation over a number of sites. We were tasked with providing a solution that enabled all staff to come together in a new collaborative environment. The following telephony challenges were identified: 3 different phone systems all operating different call centre platforms. The project affected 1,800 staff geographically spread across multiple locations.
Telstra and Ericom responded to the Tender requirements and conducted various presentations outlining the capabilities of Telstra and how they were best equipped to deliver a solution to meet the end user requirements and the handling of change management and risk mitigation. Training and documentation would be provided to all employees and the councils internal IT teams. The Telstra and Ericom team deployed a full Telstra Cloud solution for telephony and contact centre which comprised of TCO365 and Genesys Cloud. The solution integrated with the rest of Northern Beaches Microsoft suite and Salesforce.
The delivery of one platform across all three former councils has increased productivity and, in some circumstances, removed two telephones from one desk. The UC solution has enabled users to communicate in a single tool across voice / message / video and screen sharing reducing the need to travel between offices to conduct meetings. Incoming calls to council have also been simplified through Genesys Cloud which streamlines the call process resulting in better customer experience and management of call overflows between three primary sites. The deployed solution has provided Northern Beaches Council a flexible and agile Business Continuity Plan for remote working during COVID 19. The successful project implementation is a direct reflection of the collaboration between Northern Beaches Council, Telstra and Ericom. All parties worked closely to ensure the recommended solution satisfied client requirements and the deployment rollout was in stages to minimise staff disruption.
