Lanes Group use Sundial Telecoms’ Fax to Email Technology to Maintain London Underground’s Public Facilities

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Lanes for Drains

Sundial were very responsive and they changed the configuration so that faxes could be delivered as PDF documents, which is much better for Lanes

(PRWeb UK) August 19, 2010

Lanes Group Ltd, the UK’s largest independent drainage and maintenance company, are deploying Sundial Telecom’s hosted fax to email service to help facilitate The London Underground’s maintenance requirements. Their contract involves maintaining and repairing the London Underground’s Day to Day reactive maintenance, expansive drainage work including drain unblocking, together with ensuring that all public conveniences are kept in a good state of repair. Millions of people travel on the Underground on a daily basis so it is paramount that all work is carried out as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Prior to using Sundial Telecom’s hosted solution, The Lanes Group - whos core services include drain jetting - would send all maintenance and repair requirements by fax to a centralised depot. The process proved to be costly, both from an energy and consumables perspective. In order to help reduce their carbon footprint and to streamline system processes, Lanes Group wanted to source an integrated fax to email solution that would work alongside their bespoke maintenance management software. The company began looking for a suitable supplier and finally chose Sundial Telecom.

Stephen Demwell of Lanes Group explains some of the reasons why. “In the beginning we carried out some trials to make sure the service provided by Sundial Telecom would integrate with our overall maintenance system. We quickly discovered that the TIF files (the usual delivery format) was taking too long to download. Sundial were very responsive and they changed the configuration so that faxes could be delivered as PDF documents, which is much better for Lanes”

“The service also offers a number of commercial benefits. Since using their fax to email service, we have experienced huge cost savings. Our processes are also much more environmentally friendly because printing is kept to a minimum and there are no toners or ink cartridges etc to be disposed of. We only use fax machines now as a backup.”

All maintenance requests are now faxed to a dedicated number provided by Sundial Telecom. Once a fax has been received, Sundial’s bespoke software converts the transmission into an appropriate file format suitable for delivery by email.

Further to the successful trials carried out on behalf of the Lanes Group, the company has modified the service, allowing customers to choose a file format for the incoming faxes and PDF is by far the most popular. Customers create an account via a secure web interface and choose an 0844 or 0800 fax number. All faxes sent to this number are delivered to customers by email in real-time.

The Lanes Group log all maintenance requests in their centralised system. Each request is allocated a unique job reference number. A copy of the original fax request, plus all other relevant information, such as the date and time of the job, the station reference number, the nature of the repair etc. is also logged on the centralised system. All maintenance requests are forwarded to appropriate maintenance staff or sub contractors electronically and the need to print any information is virtually eliminated.

Maintenance engineers and contractors are equipped with electronic readers, so everything is signed off electronically. Client signatures and other relevant information is forwarded and stored on the same overall system, making the whole process much more efficient because risk of information going missing or jobs being overlooked is minimal.

Appropriate staff at The London Underground can access the system via a password-protected web interface and view the number of outstanding requests and monitor their progress in real-time.
Says Shane Carter of Sundial Telecom. “We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and we’ve introduced a number of internal procedures to reduce our own carbon footprint in order to help our customers become greener in the way they operate. We are really pleased to be providing environmental and commercial benefits to the Lanes Group.”

Sundial Telecom was recently a finalist in the Federation of Communications Services (FCS) Green Awards for Small Business for its fax to email solution. The company has also recently been awarded ISO 9001 certification and are in the process of applying for ISO 14001.

The Lanes Group plc has 21 depots across the UK. Group companies include Lanes for Drains, the UK’s largest independent drainage specialist; Lanes Sewer Renovation and Sewer Rehabilitation; Lanes Engineering and Construction specialising in all aspects of Rail maintenance work; Active Hygiene Services and Active Pest Control. The Group has over 800 staff and a £70 million turnover.

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