City & Guilds, the UK’s leading awarding body, has chosen Azzurri Communications as their strategic telecoms partner.

The first engagement in this relationship is for a £900,000, three year contract. Azzurri will consolidate four existing telecoms suppliers (covering mobility, IP telephony, audio/video conferencing, calls and lines and support) into one managed service to deliver cost savings and reduce complexity. Azzurri will then assist City & Guilds in their quest to use ICT in a radical and strategic way to drive real business change, through a planned and phased unified communications strategy.

Ian Turfrey, Head of Architecture and Strategic Development, City & Guilds, said: “Our first priority was to procure a cost effective service and get more from our existing infrastructure, through an operational costing model rather than capital expenditure. We also wanted a long term strategic telecoms partner that could help take us on ‘the journey’ to a fully integrated unified communications environment. We believe this is the best way for us to support our business objectives of enhancing staff collaboration and productivity.