News: scalability

9th February 2016

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Odyssey Systems, the Teesside-based telecommunications specialist, has completed one of its biggest projects to date, which included the creation of a 264,000 sq. ft. Wi-Fi zone at a factory in Chester-le-Street.

Odyssey was appointed by Coveris Rigid UK to provide a portfolio of telecommunications solutions for the food packaging manufacturer’s Drum Park facility.

Coveris Rigid, part of the worldwide Coveris group, which is owned by Sun Capital, acquired the Drum Park site last November after it has remained empty for a number of years.

As part of the conversion of the building, Odyssey installed a 100MB lease line with microwave back-up, 100 IP telephony extensions, which are integrated with the company’s other UK and European sites, and 31 Kilometres of category 6 and fibre cabling.

Central to the project was the need to create a whole-site roaming Wi-Fi network throughout the 18-metre tall factory, which would not only provide consistently strong Wi-Fi connections in office, manufacturing and warehouse locations, but enable operatives to move throughout the building using devices without losing connection to the network.

The signal is transmitted through a network of Wi-Fi units, which have been strategically installed by Odyssey to ensure maximum coverage, with the connections handed over to the closest unit as operatives move through the facility.

The system will be of particular benefit to Coveris’ logistics partner, Stiller Warehousing and Logistics, to enable its staff to interact with the company’s IT systems using mobile devices.

The project was delivered to meet customer timescales over a five-day period by a team of 10 of Odyssey’s experienced, directly-employed engineers.

Once the building is completed the company will begin producing its range of food packaging products and distribute in the region of 1.7 billion units per year from the site to locations across the UK.

Mike Odysseas, Managing Director of Odyssey Systems, said: “We are very proud to have completed this significant project for Coveris, which not only demonstrated our ability to deliver jobs of this scale to very tight deadlines, it enabled our engineers to apply innovative solutions to meet our customer’s requirements.

“The connectivity we have brought to the site will support Coveris’ productivity drive and enhance the interaction between the company and its logistics partner.”

Ian Donal, Operations Manager and Drum Project Manager from Coveris Rigid UK, said: “Odyssey has played a key role in establishing the communication infrastructure at Drum Park and will enable our employees to maximise the use of technology to manage and operate our business. The large Wi-Fi network will be of particular benefit to our operations as the consistency of its signal strength throughout the factory will support a wide range of technology-based systems designed to boost productivity.”
Official figures this week show that the UK economy has grown by 0.3% in the first 3 months of 2015, which is a slowdown from previous figures but still a positive sign overall for the economy. The figures are in some way reflective of business in general and the need to be reactive to the environment in which business operate.

The key word for telecommunications in business in a fluctuating market has to be Scalability. Being able to add to and at times, reduce your current telecommunication requirements easily is crucial to any business activity.

Traditional telephone systems operate using an onsite box that means handsets are “stuck” not just to the geographic location they are installed in, but also a specific port in your office. The telephone handsets are just dumb units. If your requirements grow past the original specification you’ll need an expensive onsite engineer with more complicated hardware modules to gain space. Don’t forget of course, all of this often takes a long time.

Hosted telephone systems flip things around. The onsite box is completely removed and intelligent handsets register with their provider via the internet. Want to move desks? No problem, just move that handset to a different wall socket and its identity will follow. New team member? Your supplier can simply post you a new handset for self-install. Opening a completely new office at the opposite end of the country? Hosted allows all handsets to operate as part of the same telephone system regardless of their geographic location. Hosted telephony offers scalability and flexibility that simply is not possible with traditional phone systems.

Businesses will always be reactive to the external market that they are trading in, but with the right communications partner to work with, scalability in either direction is not only possible, but easy.

If you want more information on telelphone systems scalability contact us call us on 01642 661800 or email post@odssey-systems.co.uk

P.S. It’s important to remember that with hosted telephony systems your calls are transported over the internet. Make sure that you always use high quality business grade connectivity, preferably from the same provider!
Telecommunications specialist Odyssey Systems has installed a state-of-the-art communications system for a North Yorkshire law firm, linking its branches across the county to Odyssey’s own dedicated data centre.

Previously Coles Solicitors, which has nine offices from Yarm to York and from Beverley to Settle, had independent systems which communicated via the internet.

Odyssey put in multi-Protocol Label Switching, MLPS, which allows the firm’s sites to operate on the same system and communicate with each other via secure broadband and a single firewall and with a single phone system across all the sites.

Three telephone servers located at three different sites have been replaced and the system is now served from Odyssey’s data centre.

Odyssey has worked with Coles for several years as the law firm has expanded and opened new offices.

Coles Managing Director Peter Gibson said: “Instrumental to that growth has been the technology we have from Odyssey, which has enabled us to grow at the rate that we have because the systems they put in place for us enable us to have complete connectivity between each of our branches, so each branch is in effect, part of our main office.

“We run our business as one business, even though we are in nine locations. Because a lot of what we do is communication, the broadband and communication for all of our telephony and IT have been a key and integral part of our business and I can’t imagine our business operating without Odyssey.

“We speak to them on a daily basis about issues, problems and future developments. Inevitably there are issues and problems but it’s how they are dealt with and managed which is the real differentiator between Odyssey and AN Other provider. I can’t praise them highly enough. ’’

The new system will also make it easier for the firm to expand and open new offices with greater ease of connection to telecommunications.

Odyssey Systems Sales Director Christine Gilbert said: “The installation of MLPS allows for a more secure and faster system with greater capacity. It provides access to our call recording software and allows remote management from our office in Stockton, giving the client a seamless and efficient service.’’

Peter Gibson added: “We would not be where we are today as a business with our breadth of geographic spread had our telecoms been managed by a faceless national provider rather than by using a local, independently-owned operator. They know the continued success of their business depends on the continued success of my business making us partners in the same enterprise.”