From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 27 March 2006 11:35
To: egb-html
Subject: E-Government Bulletin Special Issue - Voice Over IP (VoIP) in the
Public Sector
To all our readers:
Please find below the first in a series of occasional special issues focused
on specific e-government topics.
This special focus issue is also attached as a pdf file, and has been placed
on the web at:
http://www.headstar.com/egb/special/voip-si-mar06.pdf
Best regards,
Dan Jellinek, Editor.
+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 208, 27 March 2006
- SPECIAL FOCUS ISSUE:
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
IN THIS ISSUE - VoIP and flexible working; Cost savings; Avoiding the
pitfalls.
Please forward this free service to others so they can subscribe - full
details at the end.
We never pass on email addresses.
++Issue 208 Contents.
+01: Lambeth Makes The Switch To VoIP Telephony.
- Borough aims to increase flexible working and save office space.
+02: Business Call Service For 'E-Island' Man
- Single point of contact for private sector.
+03: University College Hospital Unveils Voice Recognition
- Calls to staff routed automatically.
News in Brief: 04: Risky Business - Security threats; 05: Costs Recouped -
Johannesburg project; 06: Sign Language - Newham service for deaf; 07:
Second Conference - E-Government Bulletin's annual VoIP seminar.
Section Two: Viewpoint - Geoff Young, E-Services Director, Woking.
08: Forward Thinking Pays Off: Flexible working is just one of the benefits
Woking has realised by switching to VoIP. Mel Poluck talks to a local
government pioneer.
Section Three: Viewpoint
- Staffordshire Police Head of Comms Chris Bowen.
09: Staffs Police Stress Service Quality: Tips from a force that transformed
a struggling phone system to a high quality, reliable digital hybrid.
Section Four: Special Focus Feature - VoIP In the Public Sector.
10: Good Migrations: Flexible working and greater functionality are among
the reasons many organisations are switching to VoIP. But, reports Derek
Parkinson, it is a myth that the changeover will save you lots of money in
the short-term.
Section Five: Statistics
- Reasons to convert, and reasons to stay put.
Section Six: A browser's guide
- Useful websites for further reading.
[Contents ends].
++Section One: News
+01: Lambeth Makes The Switch To VoIP Telephony.
The London Borough of Lambeth is set to roll out VoIP telephony across the
entire council in a bid to increase flexible working and create cost
savings, writes Mel Poluck.
The rollout is part of a broader modernisation strategy that includes
upgrading operating systems to Windows XP across council desktops and an
accommodation plan that will result in many council workers moving buildings
to economise on office space.
"The rollout of VoIP will allow staff to work from home, or anywhere they
can get online, using a "softphone" with their laptop to connect to their
normal Lambeth landline telephone," said Programme Manager Jon Watkinson.
This will increase the staff-to-desk ratio so we have fewer desks than
staff," he said.
While Lambeth Council has already deployed VoIP and basic training to 10 per
cent of staff in a pilot project, the remainder of the council will become
VoIP-enabled from April 2006, with the ultimate aim of reaching a ratio of
five staff to every four desks.
"Our VoIP pilot has shown that staff quickly acquire the basic understanding
to use a VoIP telephone. The major training requirement is to adopt working
practice that supports flexible working,"
Watkinson said. "The challenge is getting managers and staff to change
working practice to reap the benefits of flexible working."
Watkinson told E-Government Bulletin Lambeth is actively seeking other
government partners to share VoIP services. "Our solution will have bolt-on
capacity to extend the same service to other government organisations that
have similar requirements to Lambeth," he said. The Lambeth pilot has used
Nortel equipment supplied by network integrator Intrinsic Technology. A
supplier has yet to be selected for the main roll-out.
+02: Business Call Service For 'E-Island' Man.
The Isle of Man government is unveiling a series of new IP-based voice and
video services for residents and local businesses as the next phase of the
island's public sector modernisation programme gets underway in 2006.
Over the next year enquiries to the government from businesses and financial
services providers will be routed by VoIP call-handling services developed
by supplier Dimension Data, so that queries about taxation, for example, are
automatically routed to the right government agency. Ultimately, the aim is
to provide a single point of contact for the private sector, said government
spokesperson Alan Patterson "We want to be seen as the e-island. But if
we're going to achieve this the government must lead by example," he said.
In addition, as part of an overhaul of the island's criminal justice system,
the Manx government is to build a new prison with an IP link to the law
courts, enabling people in custody to make court appearances using
videoconferencing technology. The same network will also enable the public
to deliver witness statements remotely. Until recently, the main focus of
the modernisation has been to migrate government buildings and staff to an
IP network, and by March 2006, the bulk of this work will be complete.
+03: University College Hospital Unveils Voice Recognition.
Callers to the eight London hospitals that make up the University College
Hospital (UCH) NHS Trust can now speak directly to its departments and staff
without having to wait for an operator to connect them, following the
rollout of new voice recognition software.
The VoIP technology enables callers to speak the name of the person or
department and have their call routed automatically, saving time for the
caller and hospital staff. "It should cut the number of calls to the
switchboard. Some members of the public will ring two or three times a day,
but have got into the habit of just ringing the switchboard number," Peter
Burroughs, Director of Capital Investment at UCH ( http://www.uclh.nhs.uk/
), told E-Government Bulletin.
Although staff still have dedicated phone numbers, they need to log onto the
system at whichever work location they happen to be. As a result calls are
more likely to connect with the right person. "Doctors can be working at up
to four sites in one day," said Burroughs. A flipside for staff is that they
have more freedom to move around the trust. "Hot-desking suits doctors and
nurses, because they tend to be very mobile anyway," he said.
The trust, made up of eight specialist hospitals and more than 2,000 staff,
decided to migrate to an IP-based system following an arson attack that left
the traditional phone system crippled for three weeks.
At present, four hospitals have completed the transition, and the remaining
four are expected to do so by 2009.
News in Brief:
+04: Risky Business: The UK's National Infrastructure Security Co-
ordination Centre has published a 'viewpoint' document on VoIP security
which warns of a series of potential threats to VoIP networks and
intelligent handsets including denial of service attacks, viruses and worms.
"In the past the PSTN has been a relatively private network.
VoIP does not provide the same physical security model," the report says.
"Protecting your VoIP network requires a layered security approach." To
download a copy of the report see:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/voip1 .
+05 : Costs Recouped : More than 170 council offices in the city of
Johannesburg are to have VoIP access by June 2006, the first stage of a
project that will see all 500 of the council's buildings using the
technology. The cost of the first phase, estimated at two million pounds, is
expected to be recouped within six months:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/voip2 .
+06: Sign Language: The London Borough of Newham has launched a
service offering sign language interpretation for deaf residents and service
users using video-over-IP technology. The scheme, provided by Language Shop,
the council-run translations service, is free to deaf service users and
council departments. It is currently being used at local service centres to
provide housing and benefit advice but could be extended to all council
services. The council says it will cut spending on interpreters' salaries
and travel time and cut user waiting times:
http://www.languageshop.org.uk .
+07: Second Conference: E-Government Bulletin's second annual
'VoIP in the Public Sector' seminar is scheduled for October 2006.
For more details on attendance and information on a range of sponsorship and
exhibition packages, please contact Claire Clinton by email on:
[log in to unmask] .
[Section One ends].
++Sponsored Notice: Get The Message
- Reliable Web Hosting from Positive Internet.
Isn't it annoying when you can't find a web site you expect to be there? But
when you're responsible for designing websites and e- marketing campaigns, a
site failure could be more than annoying - it could lose you your job.
The Positive Internet Company Ltd is a group of skilled individuals with
years of experience in providing web hosting services to the public and
private sectors. Our depth of knowledge and range of technical expertise in
all matters Linux and open source means we can offer unrivalled web hosting
packages and solutions that meet your precise needs.
So for a different, more positive web hosting experience call the team with
a proven pedigree to keep you online all the time. Contact our business
solutions team today on 0800 316 1006, email:
[log in to unmask] or visit:
http://www.positive-internet.com/getthemessage .
[Sponsored notice ends].
++Section Two: Viewpoint
- Geoff Young, E-Services Director, Woking.
+08: Forward Thinking Pays Off
by Mel Poluck.
Geoff Young, e-services programme director at Woking Borough Council, says
his authority made a conscious decision to be a technological pioneer when
it embraced VoIP.
In March 2003 Woking discarded its conventional switchboard for a contact
centre using VoIP, and has since deployed the technology across 90 per cent
of its properties including remote 'satellite'
buildings like day centres for the elderly and a building used by a Citizens
Advice Bureau. The council intends to convert all its remaining buildings in
the months to come.
"It was a matter of having the confidence to use a new technology.
We're a reasonably forward-thinking organisation - we saw the potential of
it," Young says. The council has saved money on both line rental and
switchboard operation, he says, and there are other benefits too. "It has
enabled us to introduce home working. Everybody works flexibly, many work
part-time at home."
But Young says the transition to VoIP - supplied by Mitel - was not without
its risks. The major risk in the early stages was the lack of quality that
IP telephony provided at that time, an important factor when it comes to
customer-facing services. "Those risks settled down.
Over the last three years IP telephony has become robust enough to instil
confidence," he says.
So what's preventing other public sector bodies deploying IP telephony? "A
lot depends on [where you are in] the life cycle of a phone system. Most
organisations have a 10-year cycle of life for telephony systems. When you
get to the write-off period, they probably will consider VoIP."
During the transition period, the council arranged training sessions to
overcome any potentially tricky cultural or acceptance issues among staff.
The council also deployed a voice recognition function which allows workers
to be connected directly to a staff member by speaking their name. "It can
be used by staff on the road instead of using the switchboard. We introduced
it as an added bonus, to get staff enthusiastic. It paid for itself in no
time."
[Section Two ends].
++Section Three: Viewpoint
- Staffordshire Police Head of Communications Chris Bowen.
+09: Staffs Police Stress Service Quality
by Mel Poluck.
Staffordshire Police had a clunky, 10-year old conventional telephone system
that was simply not robust enough to cope with the daily demands of an
emergency service, according to head of communications and network services
Chris Bowen. "We were struggling to meet the requirements of the
organisation," he said.
Although the force decided to move to VoIP two years ago, the choice was not
an easy one. "We weren't comfortable to use full VoIP to carry our voice
communications. Our network may be passing a 999 call and we can't afford to
lose that call, he said.
To address this problem, Staffordshire Police chose to use IP trunking,
which means conventional analogue voice data is converted to VoIP data, sent
over an IP network, then converted back to analogue data at the opposite
end. "With an IP network we could use trunking while retaining integrity,"
Bowen said. After having made the transition, the organisation immediately
noticed the cost benefits. According to Bowen, Staffordshire Police gets
more for the same money, even if the newer system only lasts half the time
of a conventional telephony system. "The way technology is moving apace, I
don't expect to get 10 years out of this network," he said.
Asked what advice he would offer government organisations implementing VoIP,
Bowen says: "You need to make sure you've got quality of service measures in
place. Capacity management is more important on a network carrying VoIP."
Bowen is now negotiating a contract with Mitel, Staffordshire's current
supplier, for an initiative using VoIP to expand home-working across the
organisation.
[Section Three ends].
++Sponsored Notice: Municipal Year Book
- The Stand-Out Directory in Local Government.
Municipal Year Book 2006 contains thousands more local government contact
details than any other resource in history. Some 110 years of expertise in
this area have culminated in a directory containing:
- Comprehensive contact details for over 40,000 local government staff;
- Over 1,000 names in new areas such as Facilities, Parking, Children/Youth
services and Civil Registration;
- In-depth information for more than 10,000 other useful contacts including
central government, parish council and key associations;
- Home contact details for every elected leader, councillor and committee
chair;
- Important financial tables for each authority;
- And much more.
To order this essential resource phone 020 7973 6694, email:
[log in to unmask] or visit:
http://www.municipalyearbook.com .
[Sponsored notice ends].
++Section Four: Special Focus Feature
- VoIP In the Public Sector.
+10: Good Migrations
by Derek Parkinson.
The migration to digital technology for routing voice calls is not new in
the public sector: in fact, it has been taking place steadily for the past
25 years. And for much of this time, voice traffic has made up the bulk of
public sector electronic communications. But with the arrival of fax
machines, pagers, and more recently the internet, there has been a huge
increase in the volumes of data travelling over public sector networks.
To begin with, digital voice and data traffic were managed by separate
systems, but many forward-thinking public sector bodies are now rethinking
this approach, and integrating all their voice and data communication to a
single network, managed by one central system.
This is usually achieved using Internet Protocol (IP), and the resulting
system, the telephony part of which is referred to as Voice over IP (VoIP),
promises to cut costs and improve services for both council staff and the
public.
One obvious appeal of VoIP is a much lower cost for phone calls. To make
calls, staff simply plug a headset into any PC on the network and dial the
number with a few mouse-clicks on a desktop application.
Because most calls do not therefore travel on the public phone system for
most of the time, their cost is much reduced.
But cheaper calls are just one part of the picture. VoIP also offers greater
functionality to users because telephony can be integrated with other
desktop computer applications like contacts folders, for example.
"With a 'softphone', if I have the caller's details in my contacts folder,
it can pull out their details automatically," says Rob Neil, head of ICT at
Ashford Borough Council.
"Conference calls can [also] be set up with a few mouse clicks. All you need
to do is "drag and drop" and click on a button," Neil says. "It's not
difficult to set up videoconferencing either."
Ashford has already migrated all of its customer service operations and a
"fair proportion" of its back office staff to VoIP technology supplied by
Mitel, Neil says. VoIP also offers potential for enhancing management and
business processes across entire organisations, he says, and it is these
features that form the core of the business case for installation. For
example, IP systems can easily generate reports and statistics about
telecoms use which can help to manage the network effectively and offer
insights into staff performance.
But the greatest gains come from the flexible working that VoIP enables,
Neil says. In the past, staff had to be at a particular office to access the
information and tools they needed for their work, but now a connection to
the council network is all that is needed. Because of this, so-called
"hot-desking" is a possibility, meaning that staff may not have to travel so
far, or in some cases, at all: a broadband internet connection can mean that
working from home is a practical possibility.
This has led to more efficient use of council buildings, he says. "It can
even reduce the need for call centre space, because we can have call centre
staff working elsewhere."
Another early adopter of VoIP which has seen the benefits of flexible
working is Milton Keynes Council. "I see our IP network as an essential part
of our change programme," says councillor David Hopkins. According to
Hopkins, flexible working is likely to lead to a happier, more efficient
workforce. "It removes the need to be at a particular office at a particular
time, so staff needn't spend so much time stuck in traffic jams or on public
transport."
The ability to offer working from home also enables Milton Keynes to manage
its stock of buildings more effectively, helping the council meet its
Gershon efficiency targets. "We have four main offices in the centre of
Milton Keynes, and we inherited some buildings from the county council when
we became a unitary authority," Hopkins says.
The IP network will enable the council to sell off some of these buildings.
"By the end of next year we hope to lose one of the four.
That alone will save us around 400,000 pounds per year," he says.
Some central government agencies are also moving their telephone systems
onto IP networks. The Highways Agency, the executive arm of the Department
for Transport responsible for England's motorways, recently launched a
10-year modernisation strategy that will see the bulk of its voice and data
communications carried over a single IP network developed by Siemens.
Previously, the closed circuit cameras that monitor traffic; dot matrix
signs that warn drivers of hazards; detectors in road surfaces; and roadside
emergency phones all ran on separate networks, requiring numerous contracts
with suppliers. "We're talking about maybe 20 different contracts for each
of these, for supplying the cable, storing it, installing it, testing it,
supplying the kit connected to it, and so on,"
says David Bradbrook, a Highways Agency project manager.
This mixture of technologies presented the 30 police control centres that
monitor England's motorways with problems in their day to day operations.
"For example, if the police took a call from the roadside phones, they
couldn't just transfer the caller to the AA or RAC," says Bradbrook. "They
would have to take the details and send a fax." It also meant the system was
inflexible. For example, if networks in one part of the country were
overloaded or faulty, there was no way of using spare capacity in another
part of the country.
The Highways Agency's 10-year modernisation plan will see close to 500
million pounds spent on developing a new single, IP-based roadside network.
Voice and data communications will feed into seven regional control centres
instead of the 30 used now. Because a single nationwide network will be used
for all communication, there will be far more resilience in the system,
enabling any regional control centre to take a call from a stranded
motorist, wherever they have broken down. In addition, the seven new
regional control centres will be able to access monitoring devices from
anywhere in the country. "It will offer anywhere-to-anywhere access," says
Bradbrook.
But for all its potential benefits, care has to be taken when public sector
bodies are considering whether to implement VoIP.
The first and most obvious question is the performance of the underlying IP
network. "For a council, I would say as a minimum you need a fully switched
network - that is, with no hubs - and capacity of about 100 megabits per
second," says Rob Neil at Ashford Council.
The network must also be extremely reliable, he says. "98 per cent
reliability isn't good enough. You need something like 99.999 per cent:
equivalent to about 20 minutes downtime in a year," he said.
According to Neil, VoIP isn't a cheap option either, at least not in the
short term. "There's a myth that VoIP will immediately save you shed- loads
of money, but that's not true, unless you're going into a green- field site
or linking loads of sites together," he said. "VoIP is about taking a longer
term view."
[Section Four ends].
++Section Five: Statistics.
- Table 1: Why bother?
- Reasons why public bodies have converted to VoIP.
70 per cent: VoIP is cost-effective
40 per cent: It enables a mobile workforce
25 per cent: It improves productivity
- Table 2: Too much grief
- Reasons why over a third of public sector has yet to implement VoIP.
5 per cent : Too expensive
7 per cent: Feel there is no need
9 per cent: Unplanned downtime and reliability still an issue 20 per cent:
Waiting for the market to decide on best system
31 per cent: Security risks
NOTE: Source: Telindus. Survey of IT managers carried out in UK in June 2005
and published in October 2005.
[Section Five ends].
++Section Six: A browser's guide
- Useful websites for further reading.
A free reference guide to 'all things VoIP':
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/ .
Code of practice drawn up by UK industry body the Internet Telephony
Services Providers' Association:
http://www.itspa.org.uk/cop_files/itspa_cop_version1.pdf .
Overview of regulator Ofcom's approach to VoIP:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/voip4 .
Voice over IP Security Alliance - includes useful papers:
http://www.voipsa.org/ .
[Section Six ends].
++END NOTES.
+HOW TO RECEIVE E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN.
To subscribe to this free fortnightly bulletin as an HTML attachment
email:
[log in to unmask]
or for the plain text version email:
[log in to unmask] .
To unsubscribe from the HTML version email:
[log in to unmask]
and to unsubscribe from the text version email:
[log in to unmask] .
For further information on subscription, including how to subscribe or
unsubscribe from an alternative email address and how to find out if a
particular address is subscribed, see:
http://www.headstar.com/egb/subs.html .
+TEN STANDARD: This newsletter conforms to the accessible Text
Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard, developed by our sister newsletter E-Access
Bulletin. For details see:
http://www.headstar.com/ten .
+COPYRIGHT NOTICE.
- Copyright 2006 Headstar Ltd.
Regular circulation or reproduction of the bulletin by third parties is
forbidden. Properly accredited articles (always including source details,
bulletin subscription details and web address) or entire single issues of
the bulletin (including this notice) may be forwarded to individuals or
groups of people as long as it is made clear that to receive a regular copy,
people must subscribe individually. For queries about article reproduction,
syndication or other copyright issues please email [log in to unmask] .
ISSN 1476-6310
+PERSONNEL
To contact us by email, please use our first names and add [log in to unmask]
- EDITORIAL.
Editor - Dan Jellinek
Deputy Editor - Derek Parkinson
Senior Reporter - Mel Poluck
Technical Advisors - Nick Apostolidis, Pete Hall.
- SPONSORSHIP AND ADVERTISING.
Marketing Executive - Claire Clinton
Marketing Assistant - Katie Wilkinson.
A searchable archive of our back-issues can be found on our web site:
http://www.headstar.com/egb .
[Issue ends].
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by the
NorMAN MailScanner Service and is believed to be clean.
The NorMAN MailScanner Service is operated by Information Systems and
Services, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
====
This e-mail is intended solely for the addressee. It may contain private and
confidential information. If you are not the intended addressee, please take
no action based on it nor show a copy to anyone. Please reply to this e-mail
to highlight the error. You should also be aware that all electronic mail
from, to, or within Northumbria University may be the subject of a request
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and related legislation, and
therefore may be required to be disclosed to third parties.
This e-mail and attachments have been scanned for viruses prior to leaving
Northumbria University. Northumbria University will not be liable for any
losses as a result of any viruses being passed on.
************************************************************************************
Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion
list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic
study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html
*************************************************************************************
|
