BT takes the strain for train operator

EWS to use internet telephony

The UK's largest rail operator has awarded BT a multimillion- pound contract to overhaul its voice and data networks.

Freight train operator EWS hopes to make significant cost savings through the deal, as well as improving communications by converging voice and data traffic onto a single network across 130 UK sites.

EWS expects BT to finish installing the converged Cisco network in the next two months, allowing its 5,200 employees to benefit from improved communications, including internet telephony, unified messaging and video communications.

The train company, which hauls 100 million tonnes of freight each year on 500 trains, also hopes the converged network will allow faster contact with response teams faster and a reduction in costs incurred by journey delays.

'Much of the rail industry inherited legacy IT systems from British Rail, where a supplier monopoly previously existed,' said Matt Crayton, head of IT infrastructure at EWS.

'But now we are in a situation where we can replace our data network to support business expansion plans. Moving to new data networks will bring massive savings, and moving voice applications onto the same system makes absolute sense.'

By adopting internet telephony, EWS will be able to improve the way it re-routes calls. The firm will use reporting tools to examine call handling statistics.

And the company is also considering introducing 'softphones' for field engineers and remote workers so they can be contacted easily in any location.

'Occasionally, we need to get incident information to employees. The sooner the right people know about potential delays the sooner we can sort it out. This can bring us large cost savings,' said Crayton.

Earlier this year EWS announced it had installed software from Computer Associates to increase the number of IT problems it can fix first time from 40 per cent to 78 per cent (Computing, 10 March).