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

Background
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.

The challenge
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.

The solution
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 ISDN
connectivity.

The results
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