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| Photo: IDG Connect |
Every year universities throughout the UK face the same colossal challenge. Each one has to temporarily enhance their communication infrastructure overnight to cope with the increased demands of students contacting them to confirm course places or go through clearing.
With 2015 set to be the first year universities have no cap on the number of students they can recruit, as well as the government’s prediction that student numbers will rise by 60,000, many establishments will be wondering how they can possibly cope with the increased demand – and vitally how much it will cost.
In most cases, universities purchase additional telephone lines each year which result in expensive overheads. It can also be challenging to reverse the changes made to fixed telephone lines, and in some cases, universities just keep lines in place all year round – continuing to pay for infrastructure that is only used for three days. This can be avoided because there are solutions available that would allow universities to only pay for the services they need for the time period they need it.
There are a wealth of opportunities and savings available to universities who embrace cloud based solutions which rely on no onsite infrastructure, can assist in handling large call volumes and importantly save costs.
Lancaster University for example implemented a scalable call queuing solution in 2014 which enabled them to handle 100,000 calls over a three day period.
My advice to universities looking to address this issue is as follows:
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Source: IDG Connect
