Every customer is different so we have created a range of case studies for you to see what we've done with other customers' telecoms in the past. We have worked with businesses in most sectors, so if you can't see yours here, please contact us for more testimonials.

SIP Trunks ADSL, SDSL, LLU Broadband MyInbound Increased Resilience Informative Statistics

Based in Inverness, MacGregor Industrial Supplies provides a quality, cost-effective and value added service to the trade. From fish farms to forestry, MacGregors helps to keep the Highland wheels of industry turning.

MacGregor’s legacy phone system had ISDN30 lines, but they were experiencing poor quality of service - the service was dropping frequently - and losing their telecommunications was simply unacceptable. They also had limited visibility of incoming calls; who was calling, how often were they calling, and where were they calling from?

To increase the resilience and stability of their voice services, whilst reducing cost at the same time, we recommended SIP trunk connectivity (IP phone lines). Using our Converter gateway, they kept their existing phone system and increased their return on investment. The SIP trunks were delivered over SDSL. A range of Internet services including ADSL and LLU were provided to give the company more than enough bandwidth across their dispersed sites. Finally, in order to give more insight into their incoming calls, we ported their main number onto our MyInbound service which includes call statistics as standard.

Their voice connectivity is now much more robust and offers clear advantages over ISDN30. With MyInbound, they can now see the volume of incoming calls, and find out how many times customers are calling and where they are calling from. They can also see if calls are unanswered or meeting engaged tones, allowing them to improve efficiency. They are also now planning to use the Disaster Recovery feature of MyInbound.

An unexpected bonus was the HighNet bill; as soon as they opened the first bill, they saw that there was nearly 10,000 calls that month; this alone indicates how vital communications are to their business. They did not have access to this information with their previous provider. As it comes with a CSV file, it is easy to analyse call trends and identify phone misuse by staff.

MacGregors are also very impressed with the data connectivity from HighNet; the SDSL supplying their SIP trunks is extremely stable and their new LLU ADSL 2+ circuits are delivering 14MB downstream reliability.

“Having our telecoms supplier so close to us is a great comfort. I haven’t had to use HighNet’s support too much, but when I do I have a named contact who knows me and understands our business. I’m not calling a faceless call centre in India following basic crib sheets. Since moving to HighNet, we have much more resilient telecoms and rich information at our fingertips, and I’m looking forward to seeing how our comms grow with us.”

Steven Elder - IT Manager, MacGregor Industrial Supplies

FeaturePlus and IPDirectConnect (SIP trunking) Overseas offices connected with UK Cost reduction Professional image Increased resilience and business continuity

MacLean Electrical is a privately owned specialist electrical distributor. Formed in 1974 in the Highlands of Scotland, managed growth has resulted in the company now having specialist business units across the world servicing oil, gas, petrochemical, energy, and other industrial markets. 

MacLean needed to join up their seven UK sites with two overseas offices, improve efficiency and present a more professional front to their customers.

The first step was to install our FeaturePlus hosted IP solution for MacLean’s remote workers in the UK and the overseas workers in the USA and Azerbaijan. This allowed the users (including company directors, managers and IT staff) to make free on-net calls between sites and communicate more efficiently. We then installed IPDirectConnect circuits to allow the offices to communicate seamlessly over IP and transfer calls at will.

IP telephony has connected all of MacLean’s offices and greatly reduced overall monthly spending on their communications. The overseas offices can now be reached on a UK number, which improves the professional image, and means UK customers will never need to pay the cost of overseas phone calls. The IPDirectConnect service has greatly enhanced resilience and business continuity.

Since deploying this solution, MacLean Electrical now uses HighNet for all their communications solutions, including broadband, voice and data calls, mobile calls and other IP telephony solutions. This means they receive just one bill per month which has saved them days of processing time in the accounts department each month.

“HighNet has an excellent range of products, along with an excellent track record. However, most importantly, we have developed a great working relationship which was clear from the outset.”

Kevin MacGillvray, MacLean Electrical Ltd

Top quality broadband ADSL MAX Premium Fixed cost and savings Reliable and robust So confident, they encourage their own customers to use

Microtech Support Ltd are an Ayrshire based professional IT support and maintenance company who have been trading since 1986.

The company provides managed broadband solutions, relying heavily on remote access to all their customers, so reliable internet access is vital. They were previously with BT, but they found the service too costly. Microtech needed a reliable, yet cost-effective solution.

HighNet provided Microtech with a robust and reliable broadband service. We used HighNet Ultimate Broadband Max 800 (now called ADSL MAX Premium), which gives speeds of up to 8MBps downstream, and 800KBps upstream, with prioritised traffic, and a rate adaptive service.

The customer benefits from a monthly fixed cost, with significant cost savings. They found the reliability of the service to be excellent, so much so that Microtech now encourange their own customers to use HighNet as their broadband provider. It is equally important that their lines are active when microtech try to support them remotely. As a HighNet Channel Partner, the fact that Microtech themselves use our services speaks volumes to their customers.

According to Microtech, HighNet are a one stop shop for products and for support. All too often, many broadband providers are quick to offload the blame to BT when things go wrong. Microtech were looking to work with a robust and reliable provider, and therefore chose to work with HighNet.

“The most obvious benefit we have gained is cost savings. The fixed cost is also an advantage. HighNet have provided us with a reliable service which is invaluable to us. Because we rely so heavily on broadband, we just expect it to be there. You only ever question the particular package that you are on when it is not working, but we don’t even have to question our package, it just works.”

Chris McMail - Microtech Support Ltd

FeaturePlus call recording No equipment on premises Simple to use Cost-effective Additional useful features as a bonus

Orr Kerr Dykes Ltd was founded in 1976 and is one of the most respected independent insurance brokers in Scotland. Their office in Glasgow has an experienced and committed team that can offer advice and arrange cover across a wide range of commercial and personal insurance.

The company also offers a full claims assistance service, and recently introduced a new claims hotline for a property management company. They needed a number dedicated to this new service, and they required integrated call recording for FSA auditing requirements. They were keen to avoid a large capital outlay, as they only required the call recording functionality on this one number, and there was also limited space in the office for bulky equipment.

HighNet recommended FeaturePlus network-based Call Recording. With no capital expenditure, low cost monthly rental and no ongoing maintenance charges, it is a much more cost-effective solution than more traditional premises based solutions. It was an ideal solution for Orr Kerr Dykes Ltd, as they can now easily and cost-effectively expand their call recording facilities should requirements dictate; an important feature for the finance industry.

Orr Kerr Dykes Ltd was provided with a cost-effective dedicated number with call recording specifically for one service, with additional benefits provided through the FeaturePlus platform.

“The service is really straightforward, user friendly and flexible in terms of what we need it to do. I need to listen to a number of calls each month, and it is really simple to pinpoint certain calls. As there was no equipment to install, it was easy to set up, and the other features of FeaturePlus, such as hunt groups, are also easy to use.”

Nikki McCrossan - Claims Manager, Orr Kerr Dykes Ltd

Top quality broadband Lines for call centre Public access wi-fi Short-term contract Time constraints Critical requirement for connectivity and customer service

The Pleasance Theatre Trust is a charity theatre company, with one venue in Edinburgh and one in London, funded primarily by activities held during the month of August at the Edinburgh Festival. Over the 25 years they have been operating, they have experienced many technological changes, most notably ticket stubs to online tickets, which has substantially increased ticket sales potential, and it is therefore vital that their telecoms work.

Having used the same provider for several years, the Customer was fed up with their "diabolical management and support”. They have three venues for which their call centre staff book around 400,000 tickets during the 4 weeks of the Festival. This call centre is open from 10am to 10pm, 7 days a week, and they require telephone lines and Internet access in order to take bookings. According to Andrew, telecoms are the “backbone of ticket sales”. They needed the connectivity for the call centre and provisions for public access wi-fi, and also 3 digital connections for the BBC to use for broadcasting purposes, all delivered within 3 weeks.

Recommended by Rab Traynor (HighNet Channel Partner) Andrew approached us to solve their problem. We then delivered a bespoke short-term contract to cover the duration of the festival. We supplied analogue lines and our Ultimate Broadband MAX 800 connections for the call centre element of the solution, allowing them to maximise incoming calls and ticket booking productivity. Where their previous provider had used the same broadband connection for both ticket sales and public access wi-fi, we provided separate connections in order to provide optimum quality for the call centre. For the BBC, we installed 3 ISDN2 pairs, which was an additional bonus, as the previous provider had been unable to provide ISDNconnectivity.

The customer received a high quality, cost-effective telecoms solution to maximise ticket sales processing, while also providing enhanced wi-fi services to the Public. Everything was delivered on time according to schedule, despite extremely tight time-scales and the Customer contact being out the country for the majority of the deployment!

“We will be using HighNet again next year, but this time it will be fully integrated with our telecoms strategy. I am looking forward to sitting down with Liz (Account Manager) to see what other services HighNet can offer the Pleasance Theatre Trust. I have found HighNet to be so helpful throughout this project. You’re dealing with people not systems; when you pick up the phone with an issue, you actually get to talk to someone about it. When I need a quick response, I get it. I’m confident that when I need service from them, even on a Sunday morning, I’ll get it. You can’t buy that kind of service; it’s fantastic.”

Andrew Niekirk - Pleasance Theatre Trust

Business-grade broadband Hosted IP Telephone System Online inbound call routing management Inbound call statistics Cost savings Localised approach Improved efficiency Instant support from HighNet Detailed billing information Seamless transition, including office move Future proof plug & play solution

In 1982 a group of women in Inverness started a Rape Crisis Centre to offer support to women who had been raped. Today, RAL has developed into a service for men and women affected in any way by rape and/or all forms of abuse. Ongoing volunteer recruitment (they currently have 34, of which around 75% work on the helpline from their own homes) has led the organisation to grow, and they are now in their 5th office. RAL was the first of its kind to deal with men as well as women, providing telephone, face-to-face and counselling support.

RAL’s office had two phone lines with one answering machine, and the Support Coordinator had to divert the calls to the on-call volunteer’s home each evening. Julie Fraser, Project Development Worker, described the previous set-up as “antiquated”:

“We would spend hours each morning listening to all the messages, and we couldn’t even answer the phone during office hours in case it was a client; we had no way of knowing who was calling. We had the Internet, but it was dial-up, so we limited ourselves to checking our emails 3 times a day to keep the phone line free, and if we wanted to download any reports or large documents, it took forever. It was all very time consuming.”

RAL needed a new system that simplified the call diverting process, with 24/7 access to change any call routing in real time. They also needed to be able to identify callers from their handsets, and have access to inbound calling statistics. Having no experience in telecoms technology, they needed a system that was easy to use. They also needed to ensure costs were kept to a minimum.

HighNet implemented a solution incorporating high quality business-grade broadband (up to 8MB), hosted IP telephony and inbound call management.

With no equipment on site other than the handsets, Communicator was the most cost-effective solution. The system boasts state-of-the-art handsets where each staff member can receive their own calls, with their own voicemail, and all internal calls are free of charge (and indeed all calls to other HighNet IP customers). Most importantly for RAL, the number of the caller is displayed on screen.

In order to tackle the call diversion problem, we ported the helpline numbers onto our inbound call management product, ‘My Inbound Number'. Integration with Communicator cuts out the call termination charges that RAL previously incurred with call forwarding.

- Call routing - Once the rota for the coming week has been drawn up, the Support Coordinator can create a call plan through the online portal to ensure calls to the helpline are routed to the on-call volunteer. If there is a last minute change of volunteer, the plan can be altered instantly.

- Access to online call statistics - Where RAL were previously limited to answered or unanswered statistics, they now receive statistics on engaged calls, as well as other key data including the region where the caller is calling from, when their busy hours are and which days are busiest.

RAL had anticipated a lead time of 6 months for their new telecoms solution to be installed, however, the entire solution was deployed in 6 weeks. This was prior to the move to their new premises, however, the nature of the services deployed meant that RAL could simply ‘plug and play’ when they moved.

The office staff’s workload has been cut dramatically, as has the Support Coordinator’s. The volunteers are also happy as they can focus solely on helping the client without having to worry about the technology.

The statistics highlighted a shocking figure; over 700 calls per week were being met with an engaged tone. This highlights the unsatisfied requirement for the service, and will be used by RAL in all future funding applications. They could not have identified this without My Inbound Number.

“Although making such a change to the organisation was necessary, it was quite daunting. However, with HighNet we had complete confidence.

We are technology novices, but HighNet were able to convey the solution in a clear way, without being condescending. The transition was seamless, and we now project a much more professional appearance.

The organisation is much more efficient, the volunteers are happy and we have clear visibility of the number of calls we are missing, which is helping with our funding applications. On top of that we are saving money too.

Whenever we require support for any of the services, issues are resolved the same day. Without the instant, on the ball contact the transition would have been much harder. Certainly, to get our previous provider to speak to us was a nightmare.

We’ve never had any billing issues, and the information you get on your bill is just amazing. Despite organisational growth this year, we are already seeing savings.

All in all we’re really happy with our telecoms arrangement now, and we’re excited about the future potential of the system as the organisation continues to grow.”

Julie Fraser - Project Development Worker, RAL

LLU Broadband Fax to Email MyInbound Top quality support Excellent customer service

Established in 2002, TriCAD Solutions are building and land surveyors. Having earned a solid reputation, TriCAD has become a preferred supplier for architects and other commercial customers.

Based in Lancashire, TriCAD has created a virtual office environment connecting 3 remote offices, with each member of the team working from home. The main company server was based at Director Mark Drummond’s premises, where he had access to super-fast fibre optic broadband.

Mark then moved house, however, to an area where he could only achieve a maximum of 5MB on the BT network. As surveyors, they would sometimes need to upload around 200MB of data for architects, which with 5MB broadband wasn’t going to be easy. Having shopped around with other household name suppliers, he was also told it would be very costly to keep TriCAD’s number - if it could be kept at all - and he had no confidence in any of the information he was given.

Mark spoke to HighNet and found out his local exchange had been ‘unbundled’ (i.e. another carrier was providing services from that exchange). HighNet provided broadband at up to 24MB with free line rental for the same cost as 5MB broadband alone. In order to ensure that TriCAD never lost their number, HighNet ported the number onto their MyInbound product, which meant that if they moved in the future, even to another part of the country, the number would always stay the same. Mark also discovered two fax machines could be replaced with the HighNet Fax to Email service.

The results At Mark’s office, there is now a stable 10MB broadband connection. HighNet Technical Support has worked with Mark to attain the optimum speed – although he could achieve faster speeds, it would be less stable.  There are also plans to upgrade the exchange, which means he will soon be able to attain faster speeds with the same stability. Unforeseen benefits of having a MyInbound number means that they can see where their customers
are calling from, when their busy hours and days are, and the Finance department can analyse the company’s phone usage. The virtual fax service has cut costs, and means that for the odd client who needs to fax rather than email, TriCAD can offer this capability.

“I keep telling everyone why I am so happy with HighNet; instead of never-ending hold music and operatives who see you as ‘just another caller’, you ring a known person. When I need more services, I know who to speak to, and they know me. If I need technical support, I have a named contact who knows and understands my business. By choosing HighNet, you get better quality services and more personal customer service. They will give you advice based on your best interests, not their opportunity to upsell”

Mark Drummond - Director, TriCAD Solutions

Line rental and calls Siginificant cost savings Consolidated billing Online billing 24/7 Account Management Localised approach Business efficiency

Turning Point Scotland is a registered charity which was established in 1999. It supports adults with learning disabilities, autism, substance misuse issues, mental health issues and also provides criminal justice and homelessness services. Turning Point Scotland looks to help these people with various models of support, working in a person centred way.

The charity has experienced rapid growth over the past 10 years and now has over 50 offices throughout Scotland. Each site had initially been in charge of their own telecoms supplies, so the charity was using a wide variety of different providers. As the number of sites grew, it became difficult to manage their telecoms effectively. In 2007, they therefore put their telecoms requirements out to tender to 6 suppliers.

They required just one supplier to provide all their sites with line rental and calls. Efficiency was key; they would not choose the cheapest supplier, but the supplier who could guarantee a smooth transition and deliver considerable cost savings.

HighNet was awarded the contract for several reasons. These included our pricing and our billing facilities, but also because we proposed to work closely with Turning Point Scotland to conduct an audit of their existing sites to see how we could best improve efficiency and lower costs. All sites other than those unfotunately tied into long notice periods now use HighNet for their lines and calls.

The customer received high quality, cost-effective line rental and calls consolidating the majority of their sites. The audit indicated a number of sites had to give a minimum notice period of 3 years, and despite efforts by HighNet and Ofcom, the existing provider will not back down. These services will however be transferred to HighNet at the end of their contract, and they will benefit from truly consolidated telecoms.

• One bill for all sites
• Online billing and management information
• Competitively priced
• Personalised account management and support

“Dealing with HighNet is good. We have our own Account Manager (AM) who offers regular contact whenever required, and I know any problem will be sorted quickly. The attention to detail is really beneficial for us, for example, our AM noticed not all the sites were utilising the online billing facility, so she conducted on-site training. This applies with their support team too; there’s no large call centre so we have the same point of contact every time. It’s a localised approach which we wouldn’t get with other suppliers like BT.”

Jennifer Truesdale - Corporate Services Manager, Turning Point Scotland