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2005

THUS to provide and manage voice and data network for leading financial services organisation

THUS plc today announced that it has won a new contract with Standard Life to supply and manage its voice and data communications network.  The deal, which is worth more than five million pounds, will see THUS deliver a range of solutions including a number of high speed ISDN circuits to the ten sites that constitute Standard Life's Head Office Network in Edinburgh. These lines will handle both inbound and outbound traffic to Standard Life in the UK and the rest of the world.

Standard Life is Europe’s largest mutual life assurer and operates within six key areas- UK Life and Pensions, Standard Life Bank, Standard Life Healthcare, Standard Life Investments, Canada and International. Standard Life was established in 1825, and today has 2.5 million with-profits members around the world. The company is now restructuring and repositioning itself to cope with new market and investment conditions.  Standard Life is committed to delivering value for its members and believes a move towards demutualisation, will deliver best value for eligible members. Increased value for money was one of the key selection criteria when selecting a telecoms supplier during the tender process in 2004.

Along with cost effectiveness, quality of service, network availability, solution flexibility and resilience were of great importance to the organisation.  Having worked with Standard Life for more than ten years, THUS was selected to manage and maintain its bespoke voice and data network because it had a proven track record with the company and had a thorough understanding of Standard Life’s needs.

In addition to the ISDN circuits, THUS will be supplying leased lines for inter-office traffic, as well as a highly-resilient fibre optic Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) that will carry high speed data between data centres and Standard Life sites in Edinburgh. THUS is also enabling all of Standard Life's 0845 inbound numbers, providing a gateway for all of the financial organisation’s customers, teleworkers and independent financial advisors to dial-in via a LowCall number. This means that each caller is quickly and efficiently connected to the relevant person at minimal cost – an ideal service for longer, more complex customer support calls. 
 
Mike Mann, network services manager at Standard Life Assurance Company, commented: "At Standard Life our focus on total customer satisfaction is a key competitive advantage and driving force in our success – we aim to provide superior products and performance that fully meet the needs of our customers in a cost effective manner. As a significant amount of our business is conducted via the telephone, it was clear our telecommunications infrastructure was mission critical in achieving our objective for total customer satisfaction. Other key drivers behind upgrading our telephone facilities in Edinburgh were to significantly reduce costs whilst improving network availability. Not only did THUS provide an innovative cost effective proposition, it is a great company to work with as it understands our business and delivers what it promises. The service we’ve received from THUS to date has been excellent."
 
Since reliability is critical to the Standard Life businesses, THUS hosts monthly Quality of Service review meetings to discuss performance and any problem areas. Providing the services by physically extending THUS’s network into Standard Life’s buildings, hosting carrier grade technology on the customer site, is a major contributing factor to THUS’s excellent service performance.

Phil Male, Chief Operating Officer at THUS, said; “THUS has been providing a number of services to the Standard Life Group for the past ten years and we are delighted to be stepping up our relationship by managing such a significant amount of Standard Life’s business in Scotland. THUS excels in supporting mission critical networks where the client calls for reliability, service innovation and flexibility.”