- Governement
- UK
- Enterprise
- Premise
City of York & Harrogate Borough Council
The City of York and Harrogate Borough Council are two neighboring English councils responsible for providing local services and facilities to their respective communities. The City of York Council is a single-tier governing body serving around 200,000 inhabitants, while the Harrogate Borough Council is part of a two-tier body serving 160,000 inhabitants.
At a Glance
Both councils sought to improve their communications systems to enhance flexibility, interoperability, and efficiency. They aimed to reduce communication costs, boost staff collaboration, and provide a more robust contact center with omnichannel capabilities.
Goals
The two councils had several critical goals for their communications systems. They wanted to ensure that any new software or applications could easily integrate with their existing systems. They also wanted to use the same feature-rich solutions to centralize their communications. To improve customer service, they needed a robust contact center with omnichannel capabilities. Finally, they also wanted to reduce communication costs.
Results
Mitel successfully helped the councils achieve their goals. They now have a centralized unified communications solution that delivers voice, mobility, presence, and conferencing across both council sites. They also have a comprehensive desktop portfolio with various devices, including desktop phones, attendant consoles, softphones, and accessories. Mitel's flexible IP phones allow staff to take their telephone profile with them wherever they go, improving efficiency and flexibility. The new system also helped them reduce costs by eliminating internal call charges and decreasing travel costs for staff between sites.
“The Mitel IP telephony system integrates seamlessly with the Cisco data network, and voice calls no longer require a separate network to travel on. This has enabled us to centralize communications across the council, enabling the main accommodation sites to have the same access to communications. This has meant we have been able to improve communications both internally and with the public, thereby improving public services.”
Roy Grant Head of IT Operational Services City of York