GWCE boosts technology to meet new demands

Swindon-based GWCE (Great Western Commerce &, Enterprise) operators of several business centres in the town have awarded Centrix a £200k order for the provision of two voice and data solutions for their Shaftesbury Centre and Bentley Centre.

Richard Pinnock, Property Director for GWCE, was conscious of the new demands his centres were faced with when looking to attract new tenants and with competition growing in the area investment was inevitable in order to retain their position in the market place.

GWCE own and operate a number of centres in Swindon and the surrounding area and spent the past 6 months evaluating a solution that could form the platform for their voice and data offerings to licensees in their Centres. The solution will involve the installation of a large Category 5e structured cabling infrastructure for each building and an Avaya Definity communications server to support the voice and data applications.

Matthew Barnett, Major Accounts Manager for Centrix, explains, "GWCE first approached us early this year and asked for our assistance in putting together a revenue-generating model for both the Shaftesbury and Bentley Centres. The first few months involved us meeting with the various licensees residing in the two Centres to establish not only their requirements but also what the uptake would be for the new system. As you can imagine, it didn't take long before it was evident that, despite the investment needed by GWCE, the solution would be self-financing."

Following this in depth pre sales process Centrix were able to introduce GWCE to other business centre operators who have chosen to make Definity their platform of choice. This culminated in a visit and tour of Abbey Business Centres' Heathrow site; one of 14 sites in the UK and mainland Europe maintained by Centrix.

Currently both GWCE Centres run very old analogue voice switches which, as a result of their lack of functionality, has meant that a number of licensees have installed their own systems in order to get modern features. The installation of Avaya Definity communication servers will mean that everyone can connect to the new system and take advantage of the functionality offered. This will aid GWCE not only in retaining their existing tenants but also in attracting new tenants to the centres with far higher demands on technology.

> More information from Centrix

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