OVERVIEW

Kent and East Sussex Railway (K&ESR) chose to partner with Sota after identifying the need to modernise and refresh its existing telephony and communications. Sota successfully introduced a cloud-hosted telephone system across the organisation. The charity now benefits from a, reliable and secure technology voice communications platform, which means that it can provide the highest level of service to its customers.

BACKGROUND

K&ESR is a historical railway spanning the counties of Kent and East Sussex in southeast England. K&ESR was the very first ‘light railway’ to be constructed, with the goal of serving small towns and villages with full-sized locomotives. The current service runs on part of this historical route, serving more than 90,000 visitors annually.

The registered charity that now owns and operates the line was able to restore services to Bodiam in time for the line’s centenary in 2000. With the saying “heritage on the outside and 21st century on the inside”, the charity is keen to ensure its IT operations are up-to-date, agile and secure, even as its steam engines conjure images of the past.

CHALLENGE

When the team at K&ESR established that the telephone system was outdated and unreliable, it committed to bring in IT expertise to ensure a solution for the future.

K&ESR accepted the need to replace its telephone system, but, as with many charities, it was required to meet a stringent budget. However, it was recognised that the appointment of a professional IT managed service provider would make it possible to upgrade and improve the infrastructure, whilst remaining completely focused on charity operations.

SOLUTION

After completing the discovery process with a Sota voice communications expert,

K&ESR’s aging telephone system was inflexible and unreliable, but with a SotaVoice managed service deployed, call quality was greatly improved, with the VoIP technology enabling calls to be managed seamlessly from any location.

The SotaVoice hosted VoIP solution, combined with  feature-rich SIP handsets and soft phones, proved to be more cost effective than other systems, and provided seamless ‘work from anywhere’ functionality from day one.

RESULT

The modern cloud-based technology of the SotaVoice platform enabled the charity to benefit from a customised voice platform operating effortlessly across multiple locations and devices.