Client description:

The minutiae of managing a plethora of websites - from hosting, to applications - is the delight and focus of The Positive Internet Company Ltd. All aspects receive the firm’s full attention - from routing security patches and hardware upgrades through to installation of customised software packages. “We even go deep into customers’ codes when there is a glitch, or when optimisation is required,” said Steven Thurgood, Network Manager.

“In our view, Free Software is definitely the way forward: we are big proponents, so all of our standard offerings are based around the concept.”

Please see www.positive-internet.com

Analysis and history of Gradwell’s VoIP service:

Based in west London, the company first learned of Gradwell’s VoIP through an acquaintance who had heard that delivery and implementation was very highly rated by a range of customers.

“It has been important right from the start that all our staff – who number 20-30, depending on workload – have the right telecoms at their disposal,” added Mr Thurgood.

“Many of our original telcom traffic was between separate offices on different exchanges – so getting them in the same BT “featuregroup” was not an option.

“To have substantial flexibility from Gradwell has been a great boon for us: it permits us to use software phones, for example, from laptops while travelling.

“In addition – naturally – the savings in costs that Gradwell has delivered has been very satisfying,” he added.

Thurgood found Gradwell’s initial “pitch” – and subsequent installation – exemplary, though he points out that the research into VoIP that he and his company undertook prior to sign-up helped avoid time-loss and any misapprehensions that occasionally impede changeovers (in this instance, from BT FeatureLine).

Centrex was the Gradwell package that The Positive Internet Company Ltd opted for, with pre-configured hardware phones.

“Set-up was quite straightforward; all phones worked “out of the box”, though because of the automatic provisioning – something we didn’t know about at the time – changing the phone settings was a bit troublesome,” said Steven.

“Much of the Gradwell service mirrors what we had with BT before, albeit BT’s bills were more expensive.

“Service from Gradwell has broken less - and it allows us to do things which we weren’t able to do before, such as having more advanced hunt group patterns and dial plans, conference rooms, and custom on-hold music.

Has Gradwell’s service come occasionally “unstuck”? “Yes,” answers Steven, “but any outages have been largely down to the ISP. There have been a few occasions where the quality suddenly drops, or at least, where one side of it does. Such instances are temporary – but we have not quite got to the bottom of this yet.”

Mr Thurgood adds: “There has also been an instance of breakage of all the Gradwell proxy servers that we could use – one morning, this stopped office phone traffic, which was quite inconvenient. I have been assured that this will not happen again.”

Looking at the service as a whole, The Positive Internet Company Ltd and Mr Thurgood are pleased with the way everything has turned-out. “I have been most impressed with Gradwell’s service – and the people with whom I have dealt have been friendly and helpful.”

November 2007.