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You are here: Home Page > News & events > News > 2008

ntl:Telewest Business provides Merlin Housing Society with complete next generation network infrastructure

New £300,000 network to provide faster, more flexible working environment
Housing society staff and tenants to benefit from remote and mobile working

31 July, 2008. ntl:Telewest Business, the supplier of communications services to the public and private sectors, has today announced that it will provide a complete network infrastructure for Merlin Housing Society. A not-for-profit organisation, Merlin took over the running of South Gloucestershire Council’s housing stock in February 2007. The network went live in July 2008.

The new £300,000 network, which will be used for all data and voice communications, will link Merlin’s six main sites and 53 additional smaller offices, including sheltered housing and hostels. The new network, which will significantly increase efficiency, will be used by all 270 of Merlin’s employees. In the future, network access will also be extended to mobile staff that are visiting or working at residents’ homes.

As a new organisation, Merlin Housing Society needed to put in place a complete, flexible, robust infrastructure that would enable fast and efficient communications, underpinning its commitment to provide the highest quality social housing to its residents. Following an extensive procurement process that began in July 2007 and involved 76 suppliers, ntl:Telewest Business was selected in December 2007. Merlin chose to partner with ntl:Telewest Business due to the company’s combination of technical and business skills, network quality and ability to deliver value for money.

Derek Hart, Head of ICT, Merlin Housing Society, commented: ''As a young organisation we recognised that a next generation network infrastructure could deliver major benefits to our staff and residents in terms of efficiency, flexibility and our overall working environment. We selected ntl:Telewest Business as it provided the winning combination of people, technology and value for money. We look forward to the advantages that our new network will provide once implemented.”

The new network infrastructure comprises a Wide Area Network (WAN) running at up to 100 Mb/s, linking Merlin’s sites and a Cisco-based Local Area Network (LAN) for each office. It uses Mitel IP Telephony for voice calls as well as providing VPN access for remote, home and mobile workers. Security and business continuity are integral to the network, which is being provided as a managed service by ntl:Telewest Business. Through the single, converged network infrastructure, Voice over IP (VoIP) technology will deliver free internal phone calls across the whole of Merlin.

John Cunningham, Director of Business Markets, ntl:Telewest Business, said: “Delivering the highest standards of service to its residents is at the heart of Merlin Housing Society’s mission. Its new, next generation network will underpin this by providing flexible, high speed access to corporate resources wherever staff are located – in the office, on the move or working flexibly. This project demonstrates the advantages that technology can provide to forward thinking organisations across the public sector.”

ntl:Telewest Business has a strong heritage in the public sector, including the social housing market. It provides the network that links 230 sites for Riverside Group, one of the biggest social housing associations in the UK, which owns or manages more than 50,000 properties.

Notes to the editor:

About ntl:Telewest Business

ntl:Telewest Business has the most advanced of the UK’s two national

networks. Its vast nation-wide Next Generation Network provides businesses,

public sector organisations and service providers across the UK with a

complete portfolio of advanced data, internet and voice services. The

£13billion network is flexible, scaleable and is already built out to more than

38,000 street cabinets across the UK.As part of a commitment to deliver superior customer service, ntl:Telewest Business sales and support teams are located in close proximity to its customers in over 40 centres across the UK. ntl:Telewest Business is trusted to provide critical communications to high profile

customers including Yorkshire Water and EasyJet.

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