Telecom program enables City firm to make switches

City firm Stephenson Harwood hopes to reduce its telephone network management time by a third with new telecoms technology.The technology, designed for the firm...City firm Stephenson Harwood hopes to reduce its telephone network management time by a third with new telecoms technology.The technology, designed for the firm by call management system supplier Soft-Ex, means that the telephone extension system can now be reprogrammed automatically rather than the previous manual process when two extension numbers need to be changed.

Helen Taylor, head of marketing at Soft-Ex, said: In Stephenson Harwood, as with many law firms, lawyers change rooms frequently when they move teams, and every six months a new influx of trainees arrives.

They therefore have to make frequent changes to their internal telephone system which has over 1,000 numbers programmed in and this traditionally has involved reprogramming thousands of commands by hand.With the new technology, however, the reprogramming of the system takes a matter of seconds, the company says.

Maureen Smith, Stephenson Harwoods telecoms supervisor, said: The telecom software is vital to our firm, as the solicitors change rooms frequently.

Victoria MacCallum