The city is talking:
Why governments are
choosing Voice over IP

Government and Public Sector organizations have been among the earliest adopters of Voice over IP (VoIP) technology. In fact, TELUS has implemented VoIP solutions for many government organizations across Canada, including the Cities of London and Mississauga, the Town of Newmarket, Mount Sinai Hospital and the Government of B.C.

The appeal of VoIP to Government is hardly surprising. Like many other organizations, they are looking to VoIP to reduce operational costs, improve the delivery of services to their constituents, enhance service features, simplify their voice and data networks and enable them to quickly recover communications in the event of an emergency.

For the City of London, a number of these factors combined to convince them that it was time to move to VoIP.

The City of London, Ontario

With its miles of pathways and acres of rolling parkland, London, Ontario is Canada's Forest City. The largest city in Southwestern Ontario, it's home to the highly respected University of Western Ontario and a growing population that, according to Statistics Canada's last census, stood at just over 330,000 in 2001.

Recently, the city's Technology Services department faced a range of simultaneous challenges. London's contract for Centrex services was about to expire, some of its telephony equipment was nearing the end of its useful life and a seniors home was in the process of being completely redeveloped.

The department put out a Request for Proposals to address all of these issues. They expected to see some VoIP recommendations, but what they received was almost entirely based on VoIP. And it quickly became apparent that by adopting this approach, the city could upgrade its telecommunications systems without any increases to the current operating budget.

"Any of the other solutions we looked at would have meant a significant increase," says Lorne Seaton, London's Associate Director of Technology Services. But there was one concern with opting for such a major shift in the city's technology usage. "Because of our size and the size of our network," says Seaton, "we needed a partner with the ability to deliver. Only two or three really had that capability. And when it came to depth of experience and the availability of support, TELUS scored really high."

Choosing the solution that fits

Working closely with TELUS, the City of London chose a total of 5 Nortel Succession 1000 systems. Apart from the robustness of the VoIP solution, the city was particularly interested in the contact centre capabilities it provided for the future.

"All municipalities are being faced with providing better service to the public," says Seaton. "One of the ways to do that is to have a call centre approach where as many calls as possible go to a single area and get triaged there. Our CIO has a stated goal of achieving this in London - and the solution makes it possible."

Four of the systems have already been installed, with the fifth awaiting completion of the redeveloped Dearness Seniors Home. "It was a very aggressive installation schedule," says Jim Pretty, London's Manager of Telecommunications. "We installed well over 1,000 phones, from the beginning of November to the end of March. Add to that some major changes in our network and we were able to do a whole lot in a very short space of time. TELUS provided the resources and the expertise to get us where we are today."

Savings now, growth in the future

The City of London is already realizing some of the benefits of its switch to a VoIP solution. Shortly after the new system was implemented, 50 people in a building had to move to a temporary area while their workspaces were renovated. They simply took their phones with them and plugged them in at their temporary desks. There was no lead time required and no costs incurred for technicians to make the moves.

However, savings were never really the issue for the city. "A lot of hidden benefits get glossed over," says Pretty. "Almost all our standard phones are now speaker phones, have caller ID and programmable numbers. Literally hundreds of our people didn't have those capabilities before."

Now that a large part of the original proposal has been implemented, the City of London is beginning to think about leveraging the power of IP telephony. For example, the city's building permit system will likely be one of the first to be upgraded. When builders call for a permit, the system will recognize their phone numbers and instantly call up their files. "We'll have a lot more opportunity to improve customer relationship management than ever before," says Pretty.

The city is also keeping an eye on enhancements being developed by Nortel, some in conjunction with other manufacturers. Of particular interest, says Seaton, will be the ability to seamlessly use wireless units like BlackBerry devices. "We're looking very closely at both this and a call centre project. They're all intertwined."

Seaton and Pretty are both enthusiastic about their experience with TELUS. "The relationship is very tight and TELUS has always been responsive, from the RFP to the current date," says Seaton. Pretty agrees, adding that TELUS has "shown that they have a good, solid professional organization in place."