University of Wales Cardiff

The University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) provides education and training opportunities that are accessible, flexible and of the highest quality, and has been independently acclaimed for its high academic standards and high level of student satisfaction. Successful communica­tion between campuses, departments, UWIC students and other stakeholders is a crucial part of the University’s operations.

“Resilience is the key for an institute the size of ours and we found the ShoreTel system to be intuitive in both usage and deployment.”
— Deryck Jones, Systems and Communications Manager at UWIC.

With an ever-expanding student population, UWIC was under increased pressure to implement an intuitive telephony system that could easily scale to meet rising demands, enable students to connect with lecturers across its five academic schools and facilitate the increased call volumes received from applicants.

“We wanted a system that would make lecturers more accessible to students. ShoreTel offered us a scalable and cost effective solution that could extend to over 1,000 lecturers scattered across our many campuses.”
— Deryck Jones, Systems and Communications Manager at UWIC.

The ShoreTel system, which includes ShoreTel IP phones, Switches, and ShoreTel Workgroups, was initially implemented at UWIC’s School of Management and has since been deployed across additional departments, including Communications and Marketing, the International Office and the university’s student advice hub “iZone.”

Benefits include:

• Call routing capabilities ensure students always get through to the appropriate person
• Staff can access voicemails both locally and remotely to ensure they never miss a call
• Advanced call handling has reduced call waiting time, enhancing communication with potential and enrolled students

“Now we can provide a proactive communication structure to all stakeholders that means UWIC can aim higher and compete in the international education arena,”
— Kelvin Hughes, Head of Department of International Studies/Information Systems at UWIC.