Case
Enabling flexibility and efficiency for Cheshire and Wirral Partnership
Conscia has worked with Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to make certain that technology is empowering new ways of working, enabling users to continue to deliver high quality, innovative services while improving efficiency and maximising value on investments.
Keywords
Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP) has over 14,700 members and employs more than 4,500 staff across 73 sites. CWP strives for clinical excellence by ensuring there is a framework to deliver quality improvements, making sure that safe and effective care results in positive outcomes. Conscia has worked with CWP to make certain that technology is empowering new ways of working, enabling users to continue to deliver high quality, innovative services while improving efficiency and maximising value on investments.
“The project was well planned and executed; even when we hit difficulties with UCCX, Conscia’s Glyn went out of his way to accommodate CWP maintenance windows and arrange Cisco TAC, etc. All Conscia staff involved have been a pleasure to deal with and are always friendly and accommodating.
For me the high level of competence and approachability demonstrated by Conscia staff is major plus point as a customer and builds for a great relationship for future projects.”
Chris Staniforth, Network and Telecommunications Manager, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
The challenge
- CWP was managing numerous licenses and support contracts, some of which were coming to an end or due for renewal. The trust wanted to streamline their contract and subscription management, while ensuring that their support partner offered both value for money and the ability to help CWP drive towards their strategic goals.
- The trust was moving to a hybrid work model for many staff, and needed to ensure that teams and individuals were allocated the right tools to support this new way of working.
- CWP’s existing data centre was based in a building that was no longer fit for purpose, and some UC equipment was reaching end-of-life. The wide geographical distribution of the trust posed purchasing and maintenance challenges.
Outcomes
- Conscia first worked together with CWP to build a solution to migrate their traditional on-premise licensing and support to a Cisco Collaboration Flex Enterprise Agreement. This has enabled CWP to update their aging infrastructure and provide a communications platform that underpins their organisational strategy of growth, quality, and inclusion.
- Replacing aging telephony systems with cloud-connected UC devices has allowed CWP staff to adopt a fully flexible hybrid work model, and given the trust greater insight into device usage, empowering them to allocate resources more efficiently.
- The new, simplified licensing model enables CWP to manage costs, as well as providing enhanced visibility, and organisational flexibility. Through regular tracking and reporting, the trust can now make informed decisions based on operational data.
- Having successfully implemented a new collaboration solution with Conscia’s support, the trust decided to embark on further upgrades to their technology infrastructure, encouraging continual improvement and innovation. Conscia has worked with the trust to identify where end-of-life hardware and software may pose a security threat, and to design a new network solution to meet the trust’s requirements and budget.
Further outcomes
- Proactive planning for end-of-life hardware and software replacement has reduced risk and security vulnerabilities threatening CWP’s network, data, and people.
- Upgrading CWP’s wireless architecture to include Wi-Fi 6E-compatible access points has resulted in faster wireless speeds and lower latency, improving operational efficiency and user experience.
- Using Cisco Catalyst Center has significantly improved operational efficiency. Security upgrades that previously took one hour per switch can now be rolled out to all 200 switches on the network within an hour.
- Support from Conscia’s Integral Services has enhanced the trust’s ability to monitor their network activity and troubleshoot any issues, enabling faster time to resolution and less network downtime. This in turn empowers the CWP team to spend more time driving innovation and progression, in line with the trust’s strategic goals.
Solutions and services
- Project design
- Configuration
- Migration support
- Project management
- Integral Services Foundational – Maintenance
- Integral Services Advisory – Proactive Lifecycle Engagement
Hardware and software
Cisco Catalyst 9K switching hardware
Cisco DNA licensing
Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly DNAC)
Cisco 9800 wireless LAN controllers
Cisco Catalyst 9k access points
Cisco Identity Services Engine
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Flex Agreement 2500 users
Cisco ThousandEyes
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