MeetingZone keeps iLUKA CSM on track with a 50% reduction in telephony costs
~ Lync support vital for communication throughout The Commonwealth Games and other major events ~
Thame, Oxon, UK: 23 September 2014 - Specialised event agency, iLUKA has expanded its existing partnership with communications and collaboration specialist, MeetingZone, to help it enhance its communications throughout the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. MeetingZone’s deployment of Microsoft Lync technology has resulted in iLUKA seeing a 50% reduction in its telephony costs for managing the Games and other recent events including the World Cup 2014, and the Sochi 2014 and London 2012 Olympics. iLUKA, based in Hampton Wick, London, provided event planning services for sponsors including BP and SSE over the Glasgow2014 Commonwealth Games, and wanted to ensure that vital communications between teams in the office and on-site at the events remained unaffected.
As part of the project, MeetingZone upgraded iLUKA’s existing Microsoft Lync infrastructure from Lync 2010 to Lync 2013 and migrated it to a new datacentre. It also rolled the Lync technology out across mobile devices to help provide additional unified communications support to off-site teams.
With four venues across Glasgow, one of the biggest challenges iLUKA faced was making sure teams were able to work effectively no matter where they were located on any given day throughout the Commonwealth Games. The agency also needed to reduce costs incurred from traditional landline and mobile phone bills while minimising travel time and costs getting to and from multiple venues. Looking to MeetingZone to help them address their challenges, they opted to upgrade and extend Lync to mobile devices to allow staff to collaborate on the move via Presence, desktop sharing and video conferencing. As part of the project, MeetingZone were also able to provide iLUKA with unrestricted 24/7 support during key operational periods.
“The upgrade was part of the natural progression of the Lync technology MeetingZone had previously installed, but we wanted to extend its capabilities further to allow staff to collaborate more effectively when dealing with our corporate sponsors and clients,” said
Driton Koshutova, Head of IT at iLUKA. “MeetingZone’s knowledge, Lync expertise and support enabled us to get everything up and running in time for the Games. Halving call charges and ensuring we could stay in touch with off-site teams makes it a truly cost-effective investment for us.”
Rob Hill, technical delivery manager, at MeetingZone said: “Ahead of the Glasgow Games iLUKA were keen to migrate their communication infrastructure from their old system based at Hampton Wick to our co-location datacentre in order to provide full resilience. We were able to offer them a one-stop-shop approach – Lync support, Lync maintenance, connectivity and lines - for extending their unified communication options while helping them save money.”
MeetingZone initially installed Lync for iLUKA after the events agency moved from a PBX telephone system (a private branch exchange connects a business to the telephone exchange) in 2011.
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Notes to editors
Microsoft Lync provides users with the flexibility to communicate efficiently across a number of different channels. MeetingZone’s Voice capability for Lync is available on-site or hosted in the cloud. Users benefit from lower costs, better productivity, high reliability and security, and seamless conferencing and collaboration, while using Microsoft Lync for instant messaging, locating employees and video conferencing. It offers a consistent communication experience, and features like desktop sharing makes for great productivity. Due to its easy integration with existing Microsoft applications, rather than purchasing add-ons which other VOIP-based solutions require, users can communicate and collaborate on vital documents and make adjustments on-the-move.
About iLUKA
iLUKA is a specialised event agency, providing strategies, planning and operational fulfilment for sponsors and other stakeholders at global events. iLUKA is the only turn-key agency in the global events sector that provides a 360 degree platform from strategic development through to operational delivery.
About MeetingZone
MeetingZone, an independent communications and collaboration service provider, delivers easy to use, cost-effective, high-performance and integrated unified communications services to global organisations of all sizes, across all business sectors.
MeetingZone’s solutions improve internal and external business communications by quickly and easily bringing together remotely located people. MeetingZone’s HQ is located at Thame, Oxford, UK and has operations in Europe and North America. For more information visit: www.meetingzone.com.
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