Melbourne-based VISITS deploys Microsoft Teams Calling at community health service EACH

Melbourne-based not for profit community health service EACH has tapped managed service provider VISITS to deploy Microsoft Teams Calling to its IT systems.

The solution was brought in to allow staff to receive client calls even while they are not physically working in EACH offices, as well as aid in the organisation’s deployment of COVID-19 testing sites and vaccination centres.

Teams Calling was chosen to augment EACH’s existing Microsoft Teams setup for instant messaging and collaboration.

EACH said VISITS was the first to respond to the call, and also promised a solution to be ready within a few days.

“The solution we tried didn’t meet our functional needs and we also found it was very expensive to operate. That drove us looking for a different solution. As we were already using Microsoft Teams for instant messaging and collaboration we wanted to leverage that platform,” EACH head of IT infrastructure and applications Alex Campbell said.

“Not only was VISITS the fastest to respond, it was also the only service provider that offered a solution that could be ready in days. This was critical as we were at the forefront of the COVID testing program and needed to deploy new testing sites quickly.”

EACH said Teams Calling allowed it to deliver a new site that could make and receive phone calls over the traditional telephone network, with VISITS allocating new numbers and porting old numbers into its system to minimise disruptions for both clients and staff.

“From the moment we chose VISITS in the middle of March 2020, we were up and running within two days with Microsoft Teams Calling. VISITS was able to scale its service and meet our needs without any disruption to our business,” Campbell said.

Campbell added that the cost of deploying telecommunications to a new site has been reduced by about 60 percent, with some seeing up to 80 percent.

Looking ahead, EACH will continue to deploy Microsoft Teams Calling across all its 1300 staff across three states and territories. The organisation is also looking into a new network architecture with SD-WAN technology in the running.