MEN Case Study
MEN Media Voice Systems Relocation
MEN Media is an integrated media company that provides news and information across the Greater Manchester area. The business has 23 print media titles, including the flagship Manchester Evening News which has a daily print run of 90,000 copies, and more than 10 separate websites.
The Business Need
Following the acquisition of MEN Media by Trinity Mirror Group, a consolidation exercise was undertaken, with the company relocating from its city centre location to an existing Trinity Mirror Group facility some 10 miles away.As part of this move, MEN needed to relocate a large voice system to the new location while maintaining service to both the old and new offices, both of which required service 24x7 for critical functions.
The Challenge
Daisy was approached to support the move of the voice services during the relocation process.The challenge presented was to move the MEN Media Avaya voice system, which has capacity of up to 35,000 ports, while continuing to provide services 24x7 across both sites while the staff transition took place. Throughout the move, it was essential that connectivity was maintained, allowing the news desks to continue functioning without interruption or “down time”.
In addition to the standard office functions associated with a telephone system, the voice system at MEN supported both inbound and outbound marketing, as well as a team of reporters and a busy news desk.
Solution
Daisy planned the move carefully in a way which contained costs but also achieved the customer’s objectives of maintaining services. By conducting the move in three phases Daisy was able to achieve this; firstly by installing a network services and voice gateway; then moving half the voice system; finally, moving the remaining infrastructure and changing the telephone numbers.MEN Media operate 24x7, however, over the weekends the offices are much quieter. Daisy was therefore able to take advantage of this “spare capacity” to plan the move.
Firstly, lines and services were provisioned at the new location. A system gateway was then added to allow communication between the two sites. The next phase was to move one of the two servers so that the voice system was now split across two sites with “virtual interoperability”.
The final phase saw Daisy move the remaining server and migrate the telephone numbers so MEN Media’s customers could continue to contact them using familiar numbers, unaware of any changes. There were necessarily some very short interruptions to service while vital components were reconfigured, but these took place over weekend nights to affect the minimum number of people and were planned and communicated to staff well in advance.
Outcome
Daisy ensured the project was a complete success through careful planning and project management. Costs were minimised while maintaining service to the users at both sites throughout.Steve Earnshaw Group IT Manager at MEN Media said: “We were delighted with how smoothly the transition has been achieved and the level of detail in planning and effecting the move".
“We appreciated that through Daisy’s careful planning and methodology, the project was able to complete successfully with costs minimised.”
Daisy’s engineer (Les Facey), whose familiarity with all aspects of MEN telephony requirements, was able, with the co-operation of the planning managers from MEN, to effect a smooth and seamless transition.
"MEN having worked very closely with Daisy for a good number of years would have no hesitation embarking on any telephony projects that may be required in the future."
