The Organisation

Client: East Berkshire College (EBC)

Industry: Education

Services: Unified Communications

East Berkshire College was established in May 1992 through the merger of Langley and Windsor and Maidenhead Colleges.

In November 1995 it had 12,283 enrolled students making it one of the largest further education colleges in England. East Berkshire College formally merged with Strode's College on 9 May 2017 to form the Windsor Forest Colleges Group.

The Challenge

East Berkshire College (EBC) faced several issues with their Microsoft Lync 2013 implementation, which negatively impacted their unified communications functionality.

The key problems included:

1. Premature call transfers
2. Internal call connection issues
3. Inability to queue incoming calls
4. Unresponsive phones with delayed call connections
5. Hard-to-understand automated voice greetings
6. Emergency call restrictions during incoming calls These issues are significantly affecting the college's ability to make voice calls and damaging its reputation.

The Solution

We proposed a comprehensive solution to address EBC's Lync 2013 issues, divided into five key phases:

Phase 1: Design

• Produced a High Level Design document outlining the necessary changes
• Created a Prerequisites Document and Request for Change

Phase 2: IVR Workflow Development

• Designed, implemented, and tested a new Interactive Voice Response (IVR) workflow
• Replaced the current workflow implementation of Lync 2013

Phase 3: SIP Trunk Resilience and Continuity

• Reconfigured Lync Servers to target SIP trunks using Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs)
• Implemented failover capabilities for improved resilience

Phase 4: SQL Server Error Remediation

• Investigated and resolve SQL Server-related error messages on Lync front-end servers
• Performed network tracing, review configurations, and implement necessary changes

Phase 5: Remediate Lync 2013 Architecture

• Reassessed the Lync organisation using the Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Planning Tool
• Verified and advise on necessary changes to network connectivity, server capacity, and virtual server allocation

The Results

By implementing this solution, East Berkshire College achieved the following benefits:

1. Improved stability and reliability of their Lync 2013 infrastructure
2. Enhanced call handling capabilities through optimised IVR workflows
3. Increased resilience and continuity of SIP trunk connections
4. Reduced SQL Server-related errors and improved performance
5. Optimised Lync 2013 architecture aligned with best practices and EBC's specific needs
6. Improved user experience for staff and students using the unified communications system
7. Preparation for future migration to Skype for Business and Office 365