Microsoft Teams Calling
History Trust of South Australia
Comunet supported History Trust of South Australia to implement a digital uplift across the organisation by embracing the AWS, Microsoft Ecosystem and Teams platform.
The Project
History Trust of South Australia (HTSA) operates three museums – the Migration Museum, the National Motor Museum, and the South Australian Maritime Museum. In partnership with the State Library of South Australia, they jointly offer the Centre of Democracy.
To support South Australia’s community history network, which comprises dedicated volunteer associations and local history specialists, they manage a Community Museums Program, and offer annual grants for research and writing to promote the value of history and our place in the world.
Together, Comunet and HTSA embarked on a multi- faceted project spanning 12 months. The first phase involved relocating their Head Office from the Torrens Parade Ground to Grenfell Street, while simultaneously transitioning to the Teams Calling platform.
In the second phase, three additional locations; the Migration Museum, the National Motor Museum, and the South Australian Maritime Museum, were seamlessly integrated into the new Teams Calling platform established in the first phase of the project.
This comprehensive initiative encompassed not only the HQ relocation, but also the migration of these three locations from their legacy phone systems to Teams Calling; ultimately resulting in the decommissioning of three redundant systems.
The Challenge
Introducing a new digital communication system, especially to an organisation like HTSA with staff and volunteers, and at different locations, faced the challenge of change impact.
Transitioning to a new system requires proper training, user adoption strategies, a learning timeframe, and familiarisation with the new system. Some employees struggle with change at times, however, the simple and intuitive Microsoft Teams Calling platform with support from Comunet, provided to HTSA staff ensured they had the support needed to familiarise themselves with the features and functionalities, allowing them to adapt from a traditional and standard phone system to a digital platform.
Comunet supported the HTSA Team by providing comprehensive training sessions, user-supporting guides, and ongoing support once the project was completed.
The Solution
Comunet successfully implemented a Microsoft Teams Phone System Solution across the organisation by achieving the following requirements:
- Performed planning and discovery with HTSA and key staff to understand the calling requirements and identify areas of improvement in caller experience.
- Created call flows for key phone numbers.
- Reduced reliance on physical handsets to reduce costs.
- Provided HTSA staff and volunteers with training sessions and supporting guides.
- Provisioned several Call Flows to support business requirements, facilitating a positive customer experience to the relevant team members.
- Implemented support for unforeseen events, enabling HTSA to display caller information during regional emergencies, such as those affecting the National Motor Museum in a bushfire-prone area. Custom call flows can be activated to address such situations.
Results and Benefits
HTSA's transition from multiple analog telephone systems to Team Calling, which is integrated with Microsoft Teams, allowed HTSA staff to collaborate through multiple channels. A positive benefit of switching to digital phone software for a large organisation is the flexibility and simplicity to use with functions such as simple user onboarding, call forwarding, voice-to-email transcription, call recording and caller ID.
Cost efficiency is a significant benefit for HTSA in transitioning away from a traditional analog telephone system due to the expensive fee to set up and maintain, requiring physical infrastructure and dedicated lines. In comparison, Team Calling operates through the cloud, reducing the need for extensive hardware and maintenance. It leads to cost savings delivered by a competitive provider.
HTSA staff and volunteers can all use Teams Calling from their desktop, laptop or mobile devices irrespective of location, which facilitates remote working.
Comunet also provided HTSA with insights into call patterns, durations, and frequency of use, which will benefit the HTSA Management Team in decision-making and predicting future growth.
The benefits of Comunet implementing Teams Calling, a digital phone system, can significantly reduce costs for businesses, is simple for all team members to use, and promotes remote, hybrid and flexible working.