SAC seek to appoint a Supplier to provide VoIP telephone systems to a) completely replace existing sytems, b) upgrade existing systems, or c) provide a hosted service, across the whole organisation, including 5 Campus sites, 24 Consultancy Offices, 8 Veterinary Centres and 7 farms.

Project Aims:

To provide SAC with an integrated SAC-wide telephony system capable of supporting new telephony features, improving connectivity, functionality, productivity, manageability and operating costs. The platform for this structure will be a converged network with telephony and data communications both being delivered over the corporate network infrastructure.

Project Objectives:

— IP Telephony (IPT) over the corporate data network,

— SIP Trunks providing access to PSTN services over the data network and the ability to have geographic phone numbers for most UK exchanges,

— Unified communications (UC) providing presence, Instant messaging, Unified conferencing and one number reach,

— Centralised management,

— Centralised call logging and traffic management,

— Regional site resilience where applicable,

— Integration of calls from SAC Telephone system to SAC mobiles,

— Implement Quality of Service,

— Utilise Power over Ethernet where possible.

Key Success Factors:

— Reduction in number of independent phone systems currently installed,

— Reduced telephony bills across SAC,

— Improved telecommunications and messaging within SAC,

— Centralised management of SAC's telephony estate.