NEC IT Solutions has won a contract valued in excess of £1million to implement the communications infrastructure at the new 500 bed wing of the NHS Fife Victoria Hospital, which opened in December 2011. The contract is for a rounded healthcare solution including complete voice and data infrastructure with a LAN, WLAN and Data Centre solution, as well as wireless communications, digital signage, IPTV and radio throughout the hospital, and an intercom solution in the A&E department.

NEC was chosen because of its competitive bid, long-standing relationship with NHS Fife and its proven track record in the healthcare market, having implemented over 100  IT and communications solutions in Acute Hospitals and PCTs throughout the UK.

As well as a resilient and robust IT network infrastructure, the NEC solution also  expands the present cordless infrastructure from the existing platform implemented by NEC at Fife’s Queen Margaret hospital and the retained estate of the Victoria Hospital into the new wing. This provides full cordless coverage throughout the Victoria hospital site, whilst at the same time future proofing Fife’s previous major investment in equipment, handsets, and licences as well as enabling users to roam seamlessly between sites. The new system also enables significant benefits such as peer to peer VoIP, Fixed Mobile Convergence and Unified Communications, all helping to reduce costs and help NHS Fife capitalise on existing investments.

Donald Wilson, Head of eHealth at NHS Fife explains, “We already have a strong working relationship with NEC from previous projects we have worked on together and they have an excellent understanding of our technology requirements and of the challenges we face as an organisation. NEC’s heritage gives us a great deal of confidence in their ability to implement the new infrastructure at the Victoria Hospital on time and within budget, ready for the opening in December this year.”

NEC is also providing the new wing at Victoria hospital with digital signage which will provide information alerts to visitors at the hospital such as A&E waiting times and general information. NEC will also be implementing IPTV and radio throughout the hospital as well as an A&E solution which provides a specialist communication solution for the accident and emergency department, supplying an intercom that links all members of the department for ease and speed of response in times of emergency.

Wilson concludes “NEC is delivering a complete and future-proof solution communications platform which will provide the new wing at Victoria hospital with a very resilient and robust infrastructure, ensuring that staff and patients are able to benefit from the very best IT facilities.  We are looking forward to the opening of the new wing in December and we are confident that the NEC solution will help us to deliver the very best service to patients and visitors.”

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has partnered with NEC IT Solutions to implement a new self-service kiosk solution which facilitates its visitor experience, allowing visitors to sign themselves into its Media Centre building. As the system is fully integrated with BBC Worldwide’s Microsoft Unified Communications system, it also alerts staff to their guest’s arrival via their computer, mobile phone or tablet device.

Martin Oliver, Infrastructure Communications Team Leader, at BBC Worldwide explains, “The self-service kiosk technology enables us to automate our signing in process and allows visitors to sign in more quickly and get through our mandatory security controls without any complications. The new system lets us process visitors more efficiently, reducing time spent on manually signing in guests while also providing a more compliant audit trail of who has been accepted in to the building and by whom. We are pleased with the response to the kiosks so far and proof of their success has been the growing number of people using them.”

The Kiosk solution has built-in workflow rules to ensure an efficient process. On completing the short registration process, which includes a photograph, a message is sent to the host via email or instant messenger. The host then has the ability to accept or reject the visitor by a simple click of a button. The host also gets a digital copy of the visitor pass complete with photograph, making unknown guests easily recognisable.

The receptionist gets copies of all the registrations so that they can track who is waiting in reception and offer a personal touch when needed, for example if a visitor has been kept waiting for any reason. Other rules have also been written into the system to cater for senior management where their personal assistants are included in the email alerts, allowing them to handle visitors and take any necessary action.

The new self-service kiosks also provide the additional benefit of being used for promotional advertising. NEC has provided the latest 3D screens, which do not require 3D glasses. These have been installed on both the new self-service kiosks located in the reception area of BBC Worldwide. These are primarily used to promote the BBC TV shows that BBC Worldwide is currently marketing worldwide.

Jeremy Sneller, Business Development Director at NEC IT Solutions comments, “There are so many different options we can offer with the self-service kiosk technology, including the ability to implement NEC’s facial recognition technology – so those who regularly visit the offices will not have to keep re-entering their personal information, as the kiosk will recognise their face and automatically pull up their contact details. This could also be used as a staff access management solution too. RFID can also be built into the security pass for those sites that are highly secure and need to keep track of all visitors whilst on the site.”

Sneller continues, “We can also build in NEC’s analyser software into the Kiosk solution to trigger certain promotional material depending on demographic and numerical information of people in the vicinity. Kiosks can be wrapped with the with the customers branding or choice of livery to either further promote a message or even to simply  blend into the surrounding area where  the screens will come into action when the motion sensors are alerted to a visitor approaching. The potential of how the kiosks can develop and integrate into an organisation are endless and continually evolving. Plus it is not only limited to reception areas. It is very exciting.”

- NEC installs next-generation Unified Communications system at Plymouth City Council to support 4000 users -

NEC IT Solutions has won a contract with Plymouth City Council to implement Microsoft Lync, the next-generation Unified Communications system, which represents the largest non-Microsoft delivered deployment of the system in the UK to date. NEC’s implementation of Microsoft Lync will reduce the council’s current ICT maintenance and operating costs enable flexible working and support improved communications across the entire estate.

The new Microsoft Lync solution will replace and consolidate the Council’s existing communications infrastructure into a single environment which will serve over 4000 users across multiple sites with the ability of increasing the number of users moving forward. All staff will have access to individual and group instant messaging, video conferencing, collaborative virtual meeting space and remote access and support.

Neville Cannon, Assistant Director of ICT at Plymouth City Council comments, “Plymouth City Council put a tender out to the market for a replacement communications solution which would enable the council to become more agile and streamline our communications in light of the recent budget cuts announced by the Government. Over the past few months we have had to reduce our office space by 30%, however we still need to be able to deliver the same levels of service to the Public and our old communication systems simply would not have enabled us to achieve this objective. NEC not only provided the best technical offering but also proposed a solution designed to meet our business requirements, demonstrating their understanding about what we were looking to achieve.”

Mr Cannon continues, “Having considered what we were paying on maintenance and the costs to bring our current environment up to a standard where it could be used for Unified Communications, we quickly arrived at the conclusion that even with the cost of implementing the new Microsoft Lync technology we would achieve a tangible return on investment.”

By implementing Microsoft Lync with NEC, Plymouth City Council now can incorporate remote workers through a single interface on to instant messenger, voice communications and video and web conference calls. This makes it easy for users to collaborate together and stay connected from virtually anywhere.

Mr Cannon continues, “Flexible working is now a reality at the council. For all staff to be able to instantly see the availability of others no matter where they might be located can only improve the effectiveness and efficiency with the way we work, which in turn will facilitate to further improvements in our service delivery. It also enables us to implement new flexible working practices and potentially make further cost savings on expensive office space. With the ability to extend the system in the future, we can also look at rolling this out to or federating with other public sector organisations in the region.”

Mr Cannon concludes, “NEC has worked very closely with the Council to understand our key requirements and present a system that ticked all of the boxes in terms of solution design, functionality and ease of use. I believe the Council’s investment in the Microsoft Lync technology is not only an enabler for the Council to implement more flexible and agile working practices but also allows us to cut costs and save money as needed without affecting services.”

-NEC migrating 1600 accounts to Microsoft Exchange -

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) has placed an order with NEC IT Solutions to design the infrastructure and manage the initial phases of the migration of 1,600 mailboxes from Novell GroupWise to Microsoft Exchange 2007. The migration will provide a scaleable IT infrastructure to support the organisation’s strategic plans, as well as create a standardised technical environment that is easier to maintain, thus reducing the associated costs. It will also enable the ICR IT Team to focus its resources on the delivery of new requirements and provision of better support to scientists.

The project means that the ICR can start to adopt web-based information management, collaboration and communication technologies, which were not previously available. The first job for NEC is to integrate Symantec’s Enterprise Vault (EV) to provide an enterprise email archiving solution with Exchange 2007.

The ICR, founded in 1909, is a college of the University of London. It has grown to be one of the world’s foremost cancer research centres, internationally renowned for the quality of its science.

The ICR has a mixture of PCs and Macs and needs a robust, scalable and flexible IT infrastructure that can support the evolving needs of the organisation and help to maintain its reputation for excellence in cancer research. NEC was selected because of their expertise across multiple vendor platforms, which is critical to managing the risks involved in this project. Furthermore, NEC recommended and manages a third party specialist that is working in partnership with NEC to manage the Mac email migration.

The ICR has also agreed an annual IT support contract with NEC, providing them with general support across all their existing IT estate, ranging from simple advice or on-site involvement with major projects.

-Swisscom and NEC deliver fully hosted virtualized communications infrastructure at new citizenM hotel in Glasgow-

NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) and Swisscom AG. (Swisscom) have announced today the successful implementation of a cloud-based communications service for citizenM – the award winning Hotel Group (Headquarters: Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Chairman: Rattan Chadha). Swisscom Hospitality Services, a group company of Swisscom, has deployed NEC’s hosted solution based on its software-based IP communications platform, Sphericall delivered in a virtualized environment, as part of its Cloud-based service offering for citizenM‟s new hotel in Glasgow.

NEC IT Solutions, a subsidary of NEC Europe, has hosted the Sphericall-based platform within its local data centre and is providing it as a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution. Swisscom has used the open, web services architecture of Sphericall to integrate with its Property Management service, providing the hotel with a fully hosted, integrated business management solution. In addition, Swisscom is also undertaking all the call rating as part of the solution, eliminating the need for citizenM to engage with other third parties and ensuring that all calls follow the optimum and most cost effective route.

Since launching its first hotel at Amsterdam‟s Schiphol airport in summer 2008, citizenM has established a unique brand of affordable luxury that gives global mobile travelers – the „M‟ in citizenM stands for ‟mobile‟ – what they most want and need. Now, with its newest, 198-room hotel in Glasgow, citizenM is moving into the UK market, and it has plans to open a further two new hotels in London.

Commenting on the benefits of NEC’s Sphericall solution, Leo Brand, CEO of Swisscom Hospitality Services, says, “We selected NEC as our prime eco-system partner for voice largely based on the strengths of their Sphericall platform in the Cloud environment, which is a service-oriented communications platform that delivers scalability, low-cost of ownership and openness, enabling us to embed communications into business-critical applications and processes across the hotel. In addition, the Sphericall platform is being deployed in a virtualized Cloud environment which means that as citizenM continues to expand it can utilize the same technology at new hotel sites without incurring further set-up costs.”

Michael Levie, COO at citizenM says, “We are embarking on a major campaign to expand the citizenM brand to new urban destinations, with roll-outs planned in London, New York, Paris, Milan, Zurich and Hong Kong. We need a cost-effective solution which is reliable and secure, as well as something which can be deployed quickly and easily. By using a Cloud-based service model, we achieve just that and avoid all the cost and disruption of deploying our own infrastructure. With Swisscom and NEC, we have two well known and proven brands offering a best-of-breed solution which is very reliable and cost-effective, and because we are utilizing a virtualized environment we are able to significantly reduce our IT capital expenditure, while also eliminating on-site IT maintenance costs.”

Chris de Silva, Vice President of NEC IT Solutions, says, “NEC is delighted to be partnering with Swisscom to develop Cloud-based services for the hospitality sector in the UK and beyond. As Cloud-based services proliferate, the management and location of core applications and user-facing computing environments becomes irrelevant. The enterprise and the worker are now less interested in where their platforms and applications are being hosted and more interested in cost-effective, rapidly-deployable innovative services.”

College rolls out Identity Management technology to 3,000 desktops and 15,000 students and staff on mixed network of Microsoft and Novell technology -

City of Sunderland College, one of the largest further education and sixth form colleges in the country, has partnered with NEC Unified Solutions to implement a new Identity Management solution, utilising Novell Identity Management technology. The solution, which synchronises data from a mixed Microsoft and Novell infrastructure, will authenticate and manage staff and student access across the College’s five campuses spread throughout Sunderland.

With over 3,000 desktops and 15,000 full and part-time students at City of Sunderland College, all accessing the network on a daily basis, it was clear that if the college was to continue to provide the speed and level of service required for staff and students, it needed to streamline its provisioning of user identities and accounts.

As Dave Ritchie, IT services manager explains, “The College has traditionally worked on a combination of different technology platforms for staff and students, which has added an element of complexity to the identity and access management process. As we continue to grow we realised that we needed to streamline our Identity Management activities in order to improve communications and accessibility without compromising security.

Dave continues, “The solution which was proposed and deployed by NEC, is a single identity management vault which synchronises information from the Microsoft Active Directory and the Novell eDirectory. The system is capable of storing the details of over 30,000 individual identity accounts and because it is all in a single environment, we will be able to provision students and staff accounts quicker, providing them with faster access to the relevant core systems and applications, as well as being able to roll out new services quickly and easily in the future.”

Continuing Dave explains, “In addition to the provisioning of accounts, the new solution simplifies the process of disabling accounts when people leave, reducing the threat of security breaches of our infrastructure. The College also has to retain information on students’ accounts for up to two years after they have finished their courses, so information cannot be deleted. However, it is important that students that leave us have their accounts disabled.”

Speaking about the project, Dave states, “We knew that the implementation process was going to be technically complicated which is why we looked for a technology supplier that had both Microsoft and Novell capabilities and credentials. NEC met these criteria and could also demonstrate a strong track record in Identity Management systems. At every stage of the implementation process NEC gave us confidence that they were in complete control of the project and were on schedule to meet our implementation timeframes. Critically, the system was rolled out with minimal disruption to our day-to-day operations.”

Dave concludes, “This project has been a complete success and as a result NEC will be our first choice when we start our next stage of IT development, which will focus on extending the functionality of our Identity Management system further across the organisation.”

NEC implements wireless communications, high speed internet and 120 LCD TVs to enhance staff mobility and guest service-

The Crowne Plaza Kensington, part of the Intercontinental Hotels Group, is implementing a ‘Triple Play’ solution from NEC Unified Solutions, valued in the region of £250,000, which provides high speed internet access, television and telephony services over a single broadband connection. The order also includes fully integrated IP DECT handsets which enable staff to keep in touch with each other wherever they are in the building. The new system, which is part of the hotel’s upgrade from a Holiday Inn, will facilitate better service to guests which will match the luxury associated with the Crowne Plaza brand.

The Crowne Plaza Kensington selected the NEC system on the premise that the NEC technology is proven, reliable and secure, combined with the fact that NEC has a long-standing relationship with the Intercontinental Hotels Group. A primary requirement for the new Triple Play system was the ability to integrate with the hotel’s other IT systems including the Property Management System (PMS) and the fire alarm system.

The IP DECT handsets from NEC are fully integrated with the switchboard operator as well as the ADT fire alarm panel, providing constant communication between the fire investigation team and the front office. In the event of a fire alarm, members of the fire investigation team are alerted by text message which will specify the location of activation and an investigation can then be carried out into the source of the alarm enabling the hotel to act appropriately, calling for further help or resetting the alarm.

Isabelle Ramillon, Front of House Manager, explains, “We work hard to ensure that every aspect of the hotel is perceived to match the luxury and style of the Crowne Plaza brand, from sumptuous furnishings, fragrant hand soaps and the communications solutions we use for both our customer-facing and internal processes. We honestly aim to make every gorgeous guest as comfortable as possible, and with the introduction of the Triple Play solution from NEC we believe we can offer the ultimate technology experience – this is for both our guests and the fabulous staff that look after them. The new system has allowed for improved communication using wireless IP DECT telephones; this allows staff to stay in contact with each other throughout the building. This speeds up our service and responses to guest requests – a great example would be a guest calling reception to ask for extra pillows. It is now a simple task for reception to call the housekeeper on an IP DECT telephone and relay the request – this certainly speeds up our response time, and in turn improves the guest experience. It also helps greatly with productivity, saving time and money – imagine the housekeeper having to report to reception every time a guest made a request? The IP DECT system deals with all these situations effectively.”

Isabelle concludes, “NEC have offered a great solution to us, it enhances the guest experience and quality feel of our hotel, and is a practical part of our operation. The day to day tasks of looking after a luxury hotel will be simpler, more efficient and quicker thanks to the wireless communication system. Safety is also improved as the system is integrated into our fire and door alarms. The Triple Play solution gives us an excellent platform that supports our business operations.”

£61 million cultural project will use latest technology to provide optimum flexibility-

Leicester Theatre Trust (LTT) has turned to NEC Unified Solutions to implement a revolutionary communications solution to match the innovative nature of Leicester’s new Curve theatre – a £61million state-of-the-art cultural project which was opened by Her Majesty The Queen on 4 December. Based around a service-orientated Unified Communications architecture – NEC Sphericall – the solution integrates the communications technologies with business applications providing a flexible and open infrastructure to support its current and future development plans.

Designed by renowned architect Rafael Vinoly, Curve is a huge curved glass building which features two auditoria, one with up to 803 fixed seats while a 400 flexible seated auditorium provides a versatile smaller space. When the 32 tonne steel walls separating the stage and the foyer are lifted, the stage is visible from street level. The stunning glass façade encloses a magnificent open plan foyer with views onto the café, bars, backstage area, and across the stage.

Rob Greig, ICT and Operations Director at the Leicester Theatre Trust explains, “Curve is a unique space, covering 139,000 square feet and combining the best of today’s technologies both front of house and behind the scenes to provide the ultimate arts experience. The space utilises technology on every level, from the opening of the front doors through to the scanning of the tickets by barcode readers at the entrance, to the stage flying control system. As such it was vital that any communications solution we decided to implement was innovative enough to meet the unusual demands of the building, and to provide a high level of flexibility and mobility for staff and theatre users.”

The solution NEC delivered utilises the NEC Spherical software-based IP communications platform to underpin the mix of SIP wireless, fixed and pc–based communication devices. It also includes a unified contact centre solution for the ticket office, with integration to the theatre’s CRM and point of sale applications. The solution has built-in redundancy to ensure the constant availability of the communications technologies, and hospitality features to enable the theatre to offer communications services to corporate and other theatre users.

Greig continues, “With such a unique space we envisaged several issues in designing a communications solution to match our needs. However, the NEC Sphericall platform delivered against all our expectations and with its open architecture offers us endless opportunities to continue to develop our technology as the theatre evolves – ultimately it puts us in control of our own destiny.” The NEC Sphericall is based on the award-winning Sphere Communications Services Engine (CSE) software and is used by a range of organisations around the globe. It runs on industry-standard servers without the need for expensive proprietary hardware, and will enable the LTT to connect up to 30,000 ports across standards-based Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and analogue phones, gateways and other communications endpoints. By combining XML and SOAP technology the solution offers the LTT the capability to access a wide range of rich communications web services which can be embedded into critical business processes.

Focusing on the wireless element, Greig continues, “Every aspect of our business relies on efficient communications, from interactions with customers to behind the scenes activities – particularly in the run-up to and during performances. The wireless element of the solution enables us to improve our front of house interactions with customers and ensure two-way communications between staff no matter where they are in the theatre. If you imagine the coordination required during a performance, you will understand the challenges facing staff and performers in ensuring everything happens on time and with minimum fuss. Unlike the traditional radio technology, the SIP based wireless provided is fully integrated with the rest of the communications solutions and provides excellent coverage, facilitating the communication process.”

Through the Contact Centre application, the theatre has streamlined its internet and telephone ticket office activities and systems to provide a more efficient process, providing a better service for customers and potentially reducing operational costs. Greig explains, “By integrating our ticketing system and CRM systems with the new communications solution, we believe we will be able to develop a more personal customer experience, which is essential in a service-focused business like ours. In turn we believe that this will boost repeat purchases and drive value throughout the organisation. For example, once the integration is complete an individual calling in can be identified as a new or returning customer prior to their call being answered, which will enable us to direct their call to the most appropriate operative more efficiently. And in a service-focused industry this is an opportunity that cannot be ignored.”

Greig concludes, “Our decision to select the NEC solution was not solely down to the technology proposed, but we felt comfortable that the company had the credentials and capabilities to deliver this demanding and complex project. I am pleased to say that our decision was the right one. We have enjoyed a good working relationship with NEC and see them as an ideal partner for our future development plans.”