Powering a 3,000-User UC Transformation for a Leading UK NHS Trust

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is a leading national health provider in the UK. The Trust serves over 1.4 million people and delivers mental health, substance abuse, learning, and neurodevelopmental disability services across Surrey and North East Hampshire.

Before partnering with Telecom Resource, a UK telecommunications supplier, the Trust faced several critical infrastructure and operational challenges:

• Aging systems: The Trust operated 10 PBXs and 300 Centrex users, all of which needed to be replaced due to the UK network provider’s decommissioning of ISDN and Centrex services.
• Security and compliance: The Trust required a secure voice platform that met strict NHS standards and supported remote access.
• Limited scalability: A future-ready solution was needed to support a 3,000-user unified communications transformation across its UK facilities.

In collaboration with Sangoma’s partner, Telecom Resource, the Trust deployed a reliable, VoIP security solution:

• Features like fraud prevention, codec translation, and call admission control supported both performance and regulatory needs.
• A hosted Unify OpenScape system connected to a Sangoma Enterprise Session Border Controller (SBC), with two local survivable gateways for added resilience.
• Sangoma’s SBC delivered TLS and SRTP encryption, secure remote access without VPNs, and advanced SIP traffic control.
• The solution enabled integration with Microsoft Teams, Unify PBX, and Ascom mobility tools, forming the foundation for a Trust-wide UC transformation.

The implementation delivered key benefits across the Trust’s operations:

• High confidence: Sangoma’s technical support during planning and proof-of-concept stages gave both Telecom Resource and the Trust assurance in the solution’s reliability.
• Scalable foundation: The platform supports ongoing expansion to 3,000 users across the UK.
• Reliable performance: Survivable gateways ensured continuity during outages or failures.
• Enhanced security and compliance: Encrypted communications and threat monitoring met NHS standards.

Telecom Resource CEO Don Moore had this to say about partnering with Sangoma: “We chose to partner with Sangoma because it offered the ideal solution—robust, secure, and reliable. The exceptional tech support during the early stages and proof-of-concept phase gave the end user complete confidence in the solution.”