Richard Humphreys |
Even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, a key consideration for many businesses was what tools would be required to support a shift towards more flexible ways of working.
RSM UK, a provider of audit, tax and business consulting services, knew the future lay in integrating telephony with Microsoft Teams. David Hilland, IT partner at RSM UK, said: “We’d begun discussions with a couple of vendors about converting more fixed end points to Teams telephony, but then the pandemic hit, and it became even more important to deliver wide-scale home working.
“Our staff had been using Teams to call each other, but their desk phones were diverted to their mobiles. It was costly and cumbersome, and it became obvious that to scale up successfully we would need a different way of handling calls, as well as a very agile partner to help us make the most of the opportunity. Call it a Covid-19 dividend if you wish, but the cloud in this instance did have a silver lining. The potential cost savings looked very substantial but migrating our entire UK staff to Teams calling was not a small task.”
ecided to outsource the Direct Routing for Teams rollout to Gamma and an RSM project team was appointed to work with Gamma’s project planning and delivery specialists.
“The configuration required to set up the direct routing between Gamma and Teams is very straightforward and allows for a very controlled granular rollout,” said Hilland. “Gamma’s porting team submitted and took care of moving our telephone numbers from the incumbent supplier to Gamma. Overall, we experienced very little down time, and 99 per cent of offices didn’t see any at all. Thanks to the work of the joint project teams, we succeeded on time and with no additional costs.
“I will add that the RSM UK training we provided via live Teams events and Q&A sessions helped as it removed the fear factor for our users.”
The deployment of Gamma Direct Routing for Teams has meant that remote working for RSM staff and partners is now a more seamless experience. Teams telephony allows staff to speak with clients and colleagues as efficiently as they did when they were wholly office-based.
RSM has also made wholesale changes to its main office. It now has an open-plan meeting space with free-form seating and tables where people can meet face-to-face and work collaboratively.
“It’s the office, but reimagined,” says Hilland. “We’ve not done it at every RSM site yet – but as we take on new sites and refurbish existing ones it will become the norm. Moving to hybrid working was something we had always planned, but the pandemic and the national lockdowns allowed us to accelerate. People are now so used to working remotely, using tools such as Teams, that they are ready for the change of culture, willing to readily embrace new ways of behaving.”
Moving to Gamma Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams is saving RSM more than £400,000 ($462,000) a year in telephony costs. Hilland also notes the benefits of Teams telephony from a strategic business perspective. “RSM is a relatively new brand,” he said. “It’s our stated aim to be the advisor of choice for middle market business leaders. We know we will achieve this by focusing on the quality of the service that we provide to clients, and the quality of the relationships we have with them. We see Teams telephony and the cultural change that it is bringing as one of the key enablers that will allow us to achieve our goal.”
Following the successful Direct Routing for Teams implementation for RSM UK, Gamma is now in the process of doing the same for RSM International.
“It’s clear to us that Gamma and RSM share a common approach to quality both in terms of delivery and commercial relationships,” said Hilland. “Would we do it all again? Yes, of course we would.”
This article was originally published in the Autumn 2022 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.