The company’s remote workers can now utilise a number of collaboration tools to improve communication between colleagues, the company in general and its customers. They are able to share documents, plans and general information in real time, as well as joining conference calls.

Andrew Lough, head of enterprise solutions and services, was asked to look at the matter 18 months ago. After reviewing a considerable number of options, the decision was made to integrate three different solutions to create the desired end effect.

The result has been the joining of Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007, Mitel’s IP Telephony and the Radvision Scopia solution. ‘We think we’re probably the first to do this,’ Lough told SM.

a&o has also gone live with the 360 Dynamic Scheduling Engine, integrating with Astea's Service Alliance service  management system and Cognito Mobile.

Described as an ‘end-to-end strategy’, the unified communications solution has benefits for all departments within the business, in addition to improving communication with engineers. More than 80% of a&o’s UK workforce is mobile, working on major IT infrastructure projects and delivering localised support to over 1m devices.

‘Our engineers have HDC Windows-based devices based on a service desk application,’ said Lough. ‘As we’re rolling the solution out, we’re looking at the best combination of technology for various groups of people as there’s a large list of functionality.’

The roll out is expected to be completed by the end of June. It is currently being used by the company’s tier 1 and tier 2 service teams, which provide basic and mid-level support, before introducing it to its tier 3 technicians.