Canterbury Environment Company

Microsoft Teams Calling Implementation For Canterbury’s Local Authority

Canterbury Environment Company (Canenco) was a new Local Authority Trading Company formed to manage the multi-million-pound waste collection and street cleansing contract for the Canterbury district of South East Kent.

As a newly created firm with an important job to do, Canenco wanted to become fully operational quickly. This included their business infrastructure and IT. So when Canenco came to choosing a phone system, a Microsoft Teams calling solution was recommended to achieve a fast and effective solution.

Many organisations will know Teams as an internal communication and collaboration tool. However, it can easily be configured to make and receive external calls as well. And as an IT support partner to Canterbury organisations and experts in Microsoft unified communications solutions, Akita was well placed to deliver the solution.

Implementation of Microsoft calling solution

As Canenco was starting largely from scratch, all IT hardware was required. Our procurement team began by supplying Ubiquiti switches, UPS backups and routing equipment necessary for the IT and telecoms system, as well as desk phones for all users.

We then developed a new Microsoft 365 tenant for the organisation. As a Tier 1 CSP provider, Akita could provide all of the desired Microsoft 365 licensing for all users at the same cost as buying directly from Microsoft. Each account was then configured.

Having enabled Teams usage for all users we then implemented our Direct Routing solution to transform Teams into an external calling solution, giving each individual a phone number in turn. We then moved on to the more advanced features of the new Teams phone system, including menu routing options, a digital receptionist and a failover solution to enable calling to continue should Microsoft’s network go down.

To meet deadline requirements and prevent business disruption, the complete installation and testing of the Teams calling implementation took place over a weekend. As staff were working both from home and in the office, an Akita engineer then attended site on Monday morning to provide user assistance and training for the new system.

Ongoing IT Support

As Akita is also Canenco’s IT support provider, we have been able to provide assistance with further configuration of the system as the firm has developed its working practices. Our helpdesk has also been available to answer user questions and provide support for any issues encountered.

Looking to discuss the implementation of a Microsoft Teams calling solution as part of IT support or as a standalone service? Get in touch with our experts today for more information and to arrange a demo: