SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 1
CS&B COMMITTEE AGENDA
SEPTEMBER 28, 1995
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: September 14, 1995
Dept. File No. CC 27/95
TO: Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets
FROM: Medical Health Officer
SUBJECT: Vancouver Health Department Telephone Upgrade
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT Council approve the upgrading of telephone systems in
eight major Health Department worksites at no cost to the
City.
B. THAT Council approve the allocation of up to $550,000 from
Continuing Care Program's accumulated surplus account to cover
the cost of the following upgrade.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of A
and B.
COUNCIL POLICY
City Council, on February 4, 1994, resolved that during the term of the
1994-1996 Budget Management Program, any proposed increases in program
and/or service levels be offset by corresponding spending reductions
elsewhere in the City's operating budget or by increases in non-taxation
revenues, subject to Council discretion.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to seek Council's approval to allocate up
to $550,000 from Continuing Program's accumulated surplus account to
upgrade telephone systems at eight major Health Department worksites.
BACKGROUND
The Health Department is closely tied to the community, and provides a
range of services that each and every resident of Vancouver will need at
some point in their lifetime. The Department currently provides service
out of some thirteen different worksites around the City.
The initial point of contact for the community is usually by way of a
telephone call to a switchboard at one of the many worksites of the
Department. This represents telephone traffic numbering in the
thousands of calls every working day - indeed, past surveys of
switchboard call loads conducted by BC Tel have shown peak period
traffic in excess of 200 calls per hour, on occasion.
A number of factors thwart the ability of switchboard operators to
handle the considerable telephone traffic of the Department efficiently:
- There is no direct dialling capability to either individuals or
programs in any of the worksites.
- There is no local-to-local dialling possible between any of the
Department s worksites, even though up to 70% of traffic has
been estimated to be intra-worksite.
- The lack of voice messaging has meant that switchboard
operators spend inordinate amounts of time taking messages,
thus taking away from their switchboard traffic and information
desk duties.
DISCUSSION
Improvement of our telephone communications is identified as a major
goal within the Department's Strategic Plan. The Department has been
working with the Power & Telecommunications Branch of the Engineering
Department, and with BC Tel, over the past few years to develop
strategies to improve our telephone communications.
In the 1993 report "Analysis of Future Directions in Telephony - Health
Department Case Study", prepared by Teleconsult Ltd. of Vancouver as
part of the City's Future Directions in Telecommunica-tions initiative,
the technological issues relating to the Depart-ment s current telephone
system were summarized as:
Technology Obsolescence:
The Mitel switchboard systems at most Health Department
locations are approximately eight years old. Most systems
were purchased in 1985 and have had no software
upgrades or enhancements
since that time. An industry average for the lifecycle of any
telephone system is 5 to 7 years. While telephone system age
is not a problem in itself, many of the systems have grown to
capacity and are in need of system upgrades.
Telecommunications Bottlenecks:
Telephone operators at each of the Department s worksites are
a primary source of information for the public. The
switchboard functions as an information centre and not merely
a telephone traffic control point. The switch-board at each
worksite, however, has become a bottleneck due to the lack of
direct dial capability to individuals or programs within the
Department. The existing Mitel technology installed at most
worksites is also limited in providing information to the
switchboard operator as to how many calls are in the hold
queue, etc. Callers experience prolonged ringing if their
calls cannot get through to the operator, and frequent busy
signals, and have complained frequently. Direct-in-dial and
voice mail capabilities can alleviate some of the current
switchboard bottlenecks.
Peak Calling Periods:
Many staff of the Department spend much of their workday in
the field and are only in the office at the beginning and end
of the day. These times are the busiest for each switchboard,
as staff are all placing calls and returning messages. There
are not enough lines to handle these peaks. In addition, much
time is spent taking messages for staff who are out of the
office. Voice mail will solve that problem, with the added
benefit that staff in the field will be able to retrieve
messages during the day without tying up additional telephone
operator time.
The approaches to telephone system upgrading have different
financial implications depending on the technology selected,
i.e., higher initial capital cost with lower ongoing annual
operating costs vs lower initial cost but higher operating costs.
The higher initial cost alternative has the advantage of greater
flexibility in dealing with system growth down the road. There
is, however, no point in embarking on either course unless
funding is in place.
The Department will continue to work closely with Power &
Telecom-munications Branch of the Engineering Department to
select a telephone system that achieves the best balance between
capital cost and operating costs to insure the flexibility to
make changes in order to meet future needs.
The Department will report back to Council when the selections of
system and vendor are made.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The Continuing Care Program is 100% funded by the Province.
Approval of recommendations contained in this report will not
result in additional cost to the City.
The Chair of the Vancouver Health Board, Mr. Ron Yuen, has been
informed about, and supports to, the Department's proposal to
proceed with three high priority projects - one of which is an
upgrade to the telephone systems at eight major department
worksites.
The degree of upgrade necessary to meet operational needs is
different at each worksite. Estimated cost for upgrading
telephone systems at all eight major Health Department worksites
are as follow:
Burrard Unit $ 70,300
Central Office 51,200
Continuing Care Division 56,100
East Unit 46,700
Environmental Health 44,800
North Unit 69,800
South Unit 66,900
West-Main Unit 104,600
Sub-Total $510,400
Contingency 39,600
Total $550,000
CONCLUSION
The telephone is usually the initial point of contact with the
department. Efficient and effective telephone systems are
essential to maintaining good service to the public and internal
users alike. The proposed upgrades can be achieved without
additional cost to the City. Council should approved the recom-
mendations contained in this report.
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