Glastonbury Town Council

The Challenge

Glastonbury Town Council has several fundamental roles within local community, and it is therefore essential that the Council and elected members remain in communication with residents. An outmoded, BT VoIP phone system was proving prohibitive to the Council, preventing home working and call diverts, and described as ‘difficult’ to use or make simple changes. What’s more, the system was dependent on an unreliable internet connection, which regularly resulted in loss of business systems, as well as the telephone system. This reduced the productivity and effectiveness of the Council and was not a quality impression for local residents. Eurolink has been able to simple and easily overcome these issues to create a fit-for-purpose system that seamlessly supports the Council in their day-to-day activities.

How Eurolink helped

Utilising our client-centric, right first time approach, we worked with Glastonbury Town Council to understand current working practices and telecoms billing, as well as the future working practices they would like to adopt. Internet connectivity resilience was a key issue, which Eurolink resolved with a leased Ethernet line into the building. Ethernet is more resilient than traditional broadband models and provides a dedicated fibre line into the business that is not shared with other organisations or users. This helps ensure 99.9% uptime, alongside faster speeds, better team productivity, and continuous availability of bandwidth to keep the phone system operational.

At the same time, the outdated VoIP system was superseded by the Eurolink PIPPA hosted telephone system, which is feature-rich, and can be easily adapted and changed by the client. As well as enabling improved office-based communications, this solution empowered Council employees to work from home using the softphone application (answering and transferring calls as if they were in the office), manage diverts and voicemail greetings, and expand and contract the phone system according to the number of employees at any one time.

As well as delivering efficiency and productivity benefits to the Council, and improved customer service, the combined systems also saved the Council £245 per month compared with the previous provider. Other benefits included simplified billing, availability of a dedicated Eurolink Account Manager, and a real person at the end of the phone if ever the Council requires support.

What the client thought

Gerard Tucker, Town Clerk for Glastonbury Town Council comments “During 2017, Glastonbury Town Council completed the renovation of a separate building to the Town Hall, from which it operates its main reception, in conjunction with the tourist information office. Communication at all levels was key to this development. Having a dedicated reception was something new to the council. This necessitated an improvement in the telecommunications system which was where we sadly made a mistake by not undertaking sufficient research. Constantly our internet was dropping out, calls were not able to be transferred and we appeared less than professional in our response to enquirers.

Having installed and realised that our telecommunications supplier did not meet our expectations, at a time towards the end of our current contract we started to apply some thought to changing providers. Being one of those jobs that was not time-bound, it was only on hearing a presentation from Eurolink that it was decided to accelerate our change. As is required when procuring local authority contracts, we sought three quotes, from our previous supplier, a local provider and Eurolink.

There was simply no comparison. Eurolink understood our requirements, gently helped us to understand the advantages available and were the most professional in their approach. In Gail Derrett we found an individual that was understanding, supportive and helpful. The transfer was seamless. At every stage in the process, we have been supported by Eurolink. Having a named and known person on the end of the telephone to whom we can make enquiries, seek support and generally guide us was fantastic. The fact that we will be saving in excess of £2,500 per annum on line rental, calls and internet access is a bonus. Would I recommend Eurolink to others considering changing systems – yes, most definitely.”

About Glastonbury Town Council

Glastonbury Town Council represents the four electoral wards of Glastonbury in Somerset – St Benedict’s, St Edmund’s, St John’s & St Mary’s. It is responsible for the provision and maintenance of several local services, including the cemetery and allotments for example, in addition to local resident support, and climate resilience initiatives. It plays a vital role within the local community.

Phone: 01458 831769

Website: https://glastonbury.gov.uk/