Client: Abbeyfield Irvine and District Society

Location: Irvine, Scotland

Employees: 56

Silver Cloud client since: 2015

The background

The Abbeyfield Irvine nursing and care home for the elderly was founded in 1997. It has grown over the years, and now has 28 beds. People are referred to it from several sources, including the NHS, social work, and relatives. Some are funded privately, others socially.

The home has a mix of residential and nursing clients, with an average age of around 90 years. They have a wide range of different needs, so staff are trained in many types of care, including dementia.

The challenge

Abbeyfield Irvine had had their previous phone system for a long time, but until they met Silver Cloud they didn’t fully realise how much they could benefit by changing it. The manager, Patricia Morrison, explains: “In 2015, Silver Cloud approached us. The representative was very personable, and told us how much money we could save by changing our phone system to a digital one that placed calls over the internet. As we’d had our existing system for many years, we were interested to hear about how we could improve on it.

“Silver Cloud asked us a lot of questions about how we used our phones, and then made detailed recommendations about how we could use them effectively between the main office and the various satellite locations we have. They designed a new system which used cordless phones; I was particularly concerned that they should work all over the house, and Silver Cloud made sure that they did.”

Our solution

After analysing Abbeyfield’s existing system, we recommend replacing it with the Samsung IP office 7030. This would enable us to move their lines and calls to the modern SIP network. Doing this provided a substantial cost saving, as it reduced line charges by 40%, and allowed free calls to UK landlines and mobiles. These savings meant that Abbeyfield quickly recouped the cost of replacing their hardware.

The new system brought some other big benefits too, in particular the fact that it is ‘future-proof’. It will not be made obsolete by changing technologies in the foreseeable future, and service support will be available for many years to come. So Abbeyfield’s investment will continue to pay off far into the future. Above all, everyone can concentrate on serving their customers without worrying about being disrupted by technical issues.

The result

Patricia says the new system has significantly benefitted the organisation: “We’ve seen a big difference with the new system. Silver Cloud make sure that the software is always up-to-date. And any time we have any sort of problem, we call them, they scan the problem remotely, and then either fix it down the line, tell us what do, or if necessary send someone out the same day.”

And all at a lower annual cost than with the old system. Patricia points out that renting the hardware also has benefits, as the system is also fully maintained: “If anything goes wrong, Silver Cloud will provide a new part or replace a whole handset if necessary.”

Over the last four years, Patricia has consistently been impressed with Silver Cloud and the team that manage the firms account, “The Silver Cloud team deliver excellent service. Let’s be honest, clients’ relationships with their suppliers are really relationships that have been built by working closely with the team members on the ground.”

Patricia adds: “Silver Cloud’s engineers also worked well with another company who later installed a new internet system for us.” The whole experience has made her a strong advocate for Silver Cloud: “I can’t fault them. I would recommend them highly, and personally I wouldn’t go to anyone else.”