Telephony system replacement

Phoenix Community Housing is a not-for-profit resident-led housing association based in south London. We own and manage more than 7,600 homes in the Lewisham wards of Bellingham, Catford South,?Downham and Grove Park. We?are committed to providing homes and services that meet residents needs and are exploring cost effective solutions to provide sustainable homes.

Phoenix' current telephone system has been in place for over ten years.? Initially it was at the leading edge of technology in its area, but over time technology and the organisation's requirements have moved on.? The current system is based on ISDN circuits - a hardwired solution between the local exchange and Phoenix' Head Office.? This technology is now end of life, meaning Phoenix cannot increase its current capacity of 40 lines - a limit we often hit at peak times.? Further, BT currently plans to decommission the UK ISDN infrastructure by the end of 2025.

Hybrid working is now built into the culture and working practices at Phoenix, and the current telephone system is limited in its ability to support staff working from outside the office, whether from home, around our properties or elsewhere.?The business uses soft phone technology for its call centre operation, work mobiles for office staff and tablets and phones for operatives. We require a telephony solution for all aspects of work that can be interlinked so that the Call Centre function can contact a colleague with ease.

Our intention is to procure and implement a cloud-based service that replaces the current telephony system and provides a robust telephone service that can handle an increased capacity of calls as well as provide better integration into our other primary systems, particularly those built upon Microsoft's cloud based 365 product set.

A full specification and tender documents are attached to this notice.