This non-profit organisation, which specialises in emergency helicopter medical aid and repatriation of patients in critical condition, has chosen to improve telecommunications and collaboration across teams using the solutions offered by POST.
Luxembourg Air Rescue is one of the largest non-profits in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. With more than 180,000 members, it is active in helicopter emergency rescue, repatriation of patients from around the world by medical aircraft and organ transport in France. To carry out its operations, the organisation relies on a team of 190 employees and a fleet of 5 rescue helicopters and 4 ambulance jets. “To respond effectively to any emergency request, we have several contact numbers directly linked to our 24/7 call centre," explains Michel Schimberg, ICT Team Leader at Luxembourg Air Rescue. Having available means of communication is crucial to our business. We can be called upon at any time and lives are at stake.”
Demand for high availability
Until recently, Luxembourg Air Rescue's telecommunications used a call centre hosted in the organisation’s buildings. This infrastructure, which was around ten years old, was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and did not offer advanced call management functions. “So we decided to opt for a new solution that was more in line with our current needs,” continues Michel Schimberg. We wanted to be able to count on a service with a high level of availability, which would help improve collaboration within teams and make organisation more flexible, while being easy to manage and maintain.”
After analysing the various solutions available on the market, Luxembourg Air Rescue chose POST Luxembourg's ConnectedOffice solution.
This solution is hosted on the cloud and permanently maintained by POST's teams, guaranteeing a high level of availability and security.
Easy call management and transfer
“This solution also helps us manage calls more efficiently,” adds Michel Schimberg. ConnectedOffice, for example, makes it easy to transfer calls made to our emergency numbers or an employee extension to our team’s mobile phones, transparently. This means that everyone can be easily contacted, whether they are in our buildings or working elsewhere. For us, this option makes a major contribution to enhancing the security of our service.”
This option also offers greater flexibility to teams, making it easier on the long term to set up remote work or schedule on-call shifts for emergency response or support teams.
Using the solution’s management tool, Luxembourg Air Rescue's ICT department can easily configure call forwarding, making sure that each call is answered. Luxembourg Air Rescue can also count on the support of POST, which is available around the clock.
Better collaboration and mobility
The solution has also improved collaboration between team members. “All communication and collaboration channels – calls, video, messaging, etc. – are now unified through the CISCO Webex solution. Everything is accessible from a laptop or smartphone, adds the ICT Team Leader. We no longer have to maintain physical telephone extensions. As a result, everyone is more mobile.”
Easier access
"In the past, our ICT department spent a lot of time managing the call centre and updating the solution for security. All this is now handled by POST. Now we know that someone can always respond quickly and efficiently to a need, adds Michel Schimberg. The time we save can be devoted to technical transformation projects in support of field operations.”
The ConnectedOffice management interface also provides easier access to call statistics.
The solution was seamlessly deployed for all users thanks to POST’s teams. "To keep downtime to a minimum, we took care to test the solution two weeks before the actual migration. Everything was prepared in advance. The transfer from the old system to the new environment took less than three minutes," adds the manager.
Continuous improvement
Luxembourg Air Rescue employees have welcomed these changes, although they will need time to adapt. “Everything now goes through Webex, which provides everyone with useful new functions, such as access to the history of each call, for example, or a directory of all our staff, enabling them to contact each other easily based on availability and location, explains Michel Schimberg. It’s easy. This new environment also opens up new opportunities. One of the challenges for the future will be to integrate these advanced communication and collaboration tools with other applications, such as software for monitoring interventions or an application for managing our members.”
