Accommodating change in a new housing trust

Formed in February 2004, Maidstone Housing Trust (MHT) is Maidstone's largest social landlord with around 6,400 homes. Originally part of the Borough Council, this not-for-profit registered social landlord required a smooth, fast implementation of voice and data communications when they moved to a new site.

Over the last few years a number of new housing trusts and associations have emerged through a government initiative. Self-financed, these trusts are better placed to realise the needs of council tenants, having the time and resources to invest in repair, regeneration and new housing. Maidstone tenants certainly felt that a new housing trust was a good idea when they were balloted. MHT received the voluntary transfer of some 6,400 homes, 38 shops and 2,014 garages from Maidstone Borough Council.

The Trust looked to the council’s communications when deciding on their own infrastructure, in essence replacing ‘like with like’. After issuing a tender for PABX equipment MHT soon realised that they could have all the services and features of a PABX with Telewest’s Centrex solution, with all calls between the Trust’s headquarters and their three office sites delivered free of charge. Centrex offers a fully managed telephony solution with a range of executive business features that can be customised to departmental or individual user requirements. In addition to offering Centrex, the Telewest solution comprised of Private Circuits and Managed Internet.

"Initially we were keen to have more or less the same telecoms set-up as the council.  However, after looking at four or five PABX suppliers we chose Centrex from Telewest Business. They offered the most cost effective and efficient managed solution," says Nick Edwards, Information Systems Manager at Maidstone Housing Trust.

Moving home, whether for a domestic tenant or a business is rarely a stress-free event… this was certainly the case for MHT. Although the Trust intended to move to their offices in November 2003, a problem with the building meant that the date was pushed back to February 2004. This delay had a knock-on effect. The Trust had already printed literature with their new extension numbers but were still residing in the council building, while part of the organisation had moved to a temporary location. Working with the Trust, Telewest Business reconfigured Centrex to meet the unexpected changes in timescales and to accommodate relocated staff. Responsive account management and Centrex’s call forwarding and call divert ensured that every call got through.

"One of the key benefits of Centrex is that you don’t have to worry about it! From day one we’ve been able to pick up the phone and make calls. In addition, our transfer of data through Telewest Private Circuits is much faster than what we were used to," says Nick.

Throughout the project Telewest Business has worked closely with the Trust and other third party suppliers involved in the move.

"Even in the project lulls Telewest Business has kept in touch. The project manager was happy to visit the site at short notice to address any problems. Our people also found Telewest training to be very good," adds Nick.

The Trust, which has now obtained charitable status, is looking at signing up to Centrex’s call logging feature which will enable them to better track and monitor calls. The other services of interest are Telewest’s Wholesale Line Rental and Carrier Pre-Select (CPS). They enable a business to enjoy reduced voice tariffs by routing calls over the Telewest network.