NHS Direct looks to VoIP for healing

Announcing the installation of a new VoIP-based system for its patient calls, NHS Direct became the latest of many organisations and companies to embrace internet-based telephone services

Receiving as many as 6 million calls per year, the move to VoIP was a necessary one for NHS Direct, allowing the abandonment of an inefficient prior system whereby 22 different sites were required to service calls.

The two-year project to revolutionise the NHS' customer communications front necessitated the installation of 2,000 VoIP handsets coupled with virtual call centre technology.

Implementing one NHS network across all 22 sites, network switches can now make use of VoIP to work through state-of-the art network switches which re-route patient calls from one centre to the next available one, making the mammoth traffic of incoming calls much more manageable

It is not just large bodies like NHS Direct, however, who can benefit from VoIP technology. Many smaller businesses could also profit from running all of their phone communication through the internet, consequently increasing levels of customer service and equally saving on operating costs.

Consultancy firm Web 4 Marketing saw small businesses to be missing out on key opportunities for improving e-service, such as implementing VoIP.

Owner of Web 4 Marketing, Stephen Orr, said that with the internet becoming the first port of call for most product searches, "companies that don't do the right job on it are going to lose out".