Case Study

Redstone Telecom has been providing Indirect Dial Access (IDA) – including line rental telephony services and reduced call charges - to all three hundred and twenty schools in the region administered by Durham County Council since 2000. Prior to this, the schools had been using traditional BT lines and incurring the associated call charges. According to Ian Wilson, Procurement Officer at Durham County Council: “We recognised the need to offer our schools a better, lower-cost deal on their telephony services. We invited proposals from a number of suppliers, and the initial three-year contract – based on one year with a follow-on two-year period dependent upon performance – was awarded to Redstone Telecom. Although a key reason for selecting Redstone Telecom was their very competitive pricing, we have now awarded them a second contract for a further three years, and this decision has been significantly influenced by our knowledge of the quality of their service and their overall performance.”

Redstone Telecom's services were rolled out in stages because of the number of schools and the number of lines involved. Ian Wilson was impressed by Redstone Telecom’s project management skills and the smooth implementation of the line rental service for all three hundred and twenty primary and secondary schools throughout Durham, involving a total of more than 2,000 lines.

Since the decision to award the contracts to Redstone Telecom, Durham County Council has achieved significant savings. The call charges have been reduced by 40-50% and the line rental costs are 12.5% less than the previous BT service. Ian Wilson: “Redstone Telecom has met the needs and expectations of the schools in every way, and they have done a very good job.

“I believe that we are pioneers in the adoption of this approach towards telephony services for schools. I am not aware of any other LEA using a similar service, despite the fact that our own experience is one of high quality and much lower costs.”

Durham Council is currently evaluating whether the Redstone Telecom IDA service should be rolled out to all departments of the Council, in addition to the schools, which would bring the total number of sites to five hundred.

For more information email: enquiries@redstone.co.uk or call 0845 200 2200