“It is clear that Dataphone understand the needs of a school, and have carried out work to suit our curriculum and building work timetables. We are happy to recommend Dataphone to other schools seeking a reliable company to cater for their needs.”
Graham Wicks, Deputy Bursar

Bancroft’s School is an HMC coeducational school catering for 1000 pupils aged 7-18. Founded by the Drapers' Company in 1737, Bancroft’s prides itself on its excellent academic record, its comprehensive range of extracurricular opportunities and the pastoral support it gives to its students.

Issues

• Outdated BT telephone system unable to meet the needs of a progressive school
• Old technology made it difficult to communicate effectively with staff on site
• The school was undergoing an expansion programme, and the old system didn’t have sufficient capacity to cater for additional extensions
• Old system was only able to hold and transfer a limited number of calls and there was no provision for voicemail messaging.
• Inadequate cabling

Solutions

• An up-to-date and easy-to-use Siemens HiPath system
• A flexible and expandable system to cater for the development of the school
• Integrated Siemens voicemail
• Effective automated call answering and routing facility
• Cabling and upgrade work carried out during school holidays

Result

• Improved communication for both internal staff and callers
• A cost effective and durable telecom solution
• The support of a knowledgeable telecoms company sympathetic to the needs of a school

Extensive facilities update

In order to ensure that their on-site facilities matched the excellence of their teaching, Bancroft’s School undertook an extensive modernisation programme. Their old telephone system was out of date and very limited with the number of extensions it could support. Calls were being lost during the transfer process and some of the cabling was inadequate and unreliable.

Bancroft’s needed a system that would be sustainable for at least the following ten years, and one that could be adapted to suit the school’s changing needs. They consulted three telecom companies and Dataphone was selected; the Deputy Bursar, Graham Wicks, felt that Dataphone was sympathetic to the environment of the school and understood both his needs and the school’s requirements.

p>During the site survey, Dataphone engineers carefully planned the most effective way to install the new telephone system to ensure the best use of existing infrastructure in order to reduce both installation time and costs for the school; from the outset a strong emphasis was put on creating a workable and ongoing partnership between the school and Dataphone.

Sustainable and flexible solution

The Siemens HiPath telephone system was chosen by Bancroft’s because it met all of their requirements and Siemens was renowned for both quality and reliability.

Since the installation in 2001, additional extensions have been added and a significant amount of enhancement to the school’s wiring infrastructure has been carried out to cater for operational and school layout changes. Voicemail has added convenience and flexibility for staff, and automated call answering and routing has given callers the ability to connect quickly to departments and to members of staff. Additionally, callers – in particular parents – can access routine information about the school (via recorded messages) whilst also being able to speak directly to reception if necessary.

Dataphone provide Bancroft’s with the complete solution including telephone system, maintenance and Dataphone’s Least Cost Routing Service for lines and calls. This has the advantage that any faults, whether to do with systems or lines are all reported to Dataphone.

The previous BT telephone system wasn’t able to deal with multiple incoming calls, couldn’t support calling line identity (CLI) and didn’t incorporate voicemail and automated call answering. The new Siemens HiPath system addressed all of these issues, and also enabled staff to access system features via simple-to-follow user menus displayed on handsets.

Eight years on, Bancroft’s School is still able to take advantage of the latest technology from Siemens by having cost effective HiPath equipment and software upgrades: Internet Protocol (IP) technology will be employed in the future to provide additional extensions in new school buildings.

Responsive and professional service

Graham said “We chose Dataphone Communications to supply and install our Siemens HiPath telephone system in 2001. The installation and configuration of the equipment went very smoothly and over the years we have been impressed with the all round quality of service from the company”.

“We opted for the Siemens HiPath system based on its reputation as a flexible and durable system, and chose Dataphone Communications to supply and install it based on their sound advice and support before the installation, and we are happy to say that both the system and Dataphone have lived up to their promises. Due to an ongoing investment programme in our school, we have regularly called upon Dataphone to carry out alterations to the system, and we have always been satisfied with their responsive and professional service”.

“Building a strong working relationship with our customers is very important to Dataphone, and the Bancroft’s School installation is an excellent example of this. As a school they have specific needs and requirements which we understand. We have created a bespoke solution for them to take into account their needs now and for the future.”
Tony Butler, Dataphone Account Manager