Over the past four years, Cherchefelle Housing Association has systematically outsourced more and more of its ICT services to technology supplier Comtec, beginning in 2006 with the implementation and hosting of a Citrix-based server solution to support remote working.
The following year, the housing provider needed to upgrade its telephony functions to improve responsiveness and call-handling processes, with Comtec recommending the most effective and value-for-money course of action. This was swiftly followed by the introduction of an Avaya IP telephony system to deliver professional contact-centre capabilities for the first time. Comtec also added SIP trunking capabilities which have significantly reduced Cherchefelle’s phone bills.
Martin Bellinger, chief executive, Cherchefelle Housing Association, said, “We specialise in helping people with mental illness or learning disabilities, young people leaving care, and elderly people. Our ‘Floating Support Services’ also work with vulnerable people living in their own homes and in temporary accommodation.
“We manage and deliver all of these activities from a main office and subsequent branch offices. It was this wider network of offices and their related communications requirements that we enlisted Comtec to maintain and support.”
In 2008, Comtec’s specialist IT relocations division managed the relocation in less than 24 hours of Cherchefelle’s entire ICT infrastructure from its previous offices in Reigate to new corporate headquarters in Redhill. Bellinger explained, “We were looking for a comprehensive ICT supplier that we could outsource everything to, but in Comtec we found a partner that takes away all our ICT headaches and leaves us to concentrate on running our charity.”
The latest development between the two organisations is Comtec’s provision of continual remote and onsite ICT support based on a four-hour response time.
