The Multiple Sclerosis Society's mission is to help enable those affected by MS to live life to its full potential.

Background
Its activities include funding research, running respite care centres and providing grants, education and training. The charity was founded in 1953 and has 350 local branches across the UK.

Challenge
The MS Society needed a new phone system that would support its status as a forward-thinking and well-resourced organisation. The existing phone system at the head office was thought to be at least 12 years old and was deemed too inflexible. Furthermore, the lack of features was restricting the society's work.

The decision was therefore made to implement a modern and scalable IP phone system. The MS Society needed a cost-effective and future-proof communications infrastructure that would allow the sharing of important information via voice, data and ultimately video conferencing across its regional operations and home workers.

The ICT team, recognising they did not have the experience in-house to run a tender process to select new network technologies, contacted IP Solutions to manage, support and administer the process.

Solution
The tender process began with an initial consultation to establish the most important issues. They were identified as ease of use, scalability, support and disaster recovery. IP Solutions then identified that The MS Society would benefit most from a hosted VoIP solution, and that it required a new MPLS data network so as to share information via voice, data and ultimately video conferencing.

This IP backbone would sit on the same VPN to converge voice and data, and would support development for the organisation's future communication needs. IP Solutions produced a Request For Information (RFI) that was sent to seven leading suppliers with experience dealing with organisations similar to The MS Society.

Together with the tender board, IP Solutions chose a shortlist of three companies to present to the ICT team. Based on offering and cost effectiveness IP Solutions recommended Voicenet Solutions, and the tender board gave the green light for implementation.

Results
The benefits of the new system are already more than apparent, particularly with the integration of home workers and regional offices. The old telephone system could not unite all employees under a single network – home workers even used their home phones on their home phone numbers. Using the hosted VoIP solution and the MPLS network, these regional and home workers simply turn on their computers and are part of the larger communications network, contactable on an extension number.

The new system has given the charity the infrastructure it needs to support its existing national operations, with the flexibility in place to support future growth and development.

"We knew we needed to update our telecommunications system and network infrastructure but we didn't know what was the best solution available on the market for our needs. We selected IP Solutions to lend its experience to the entire tender process and to give us independent, jargon-free recommendations." - Head of ICT, The MS Society

"The MPLS network recommendation has given us a future-proof network solution. It's exactly the kind of flexibility and support that we needed." - Head of ICT, The MS Society