Poplar HARCA is a registered social landlord and charity, owning and managing about 5,000 homes in the East End of London. It was the first housing company in the country to run former local authority housing in an urban area. As well as providing housing, Poplar HARCA is also actively involved in social regeneration programmes run through a network of neighbourhood centres at each of the Association’s housing estates. These centres provide a venue for local people to meet for community events, playgroups, training and advice.

Poplar HARCA first started working with Redstone Telecom in 2002. The Association was keen to reduce telephone call charges and believed that Indirect Access could provide the solution. A number of suppliers were considered and Redstone Telecom was chosen based on the company’s competitive pricing and service commitment.

Neville Reid is the Senior Finance Manager at Poplar HARCA, and is also responsible for the Association’s telecoms budget. “Our move to Redstone Telecom and Indirect Access has been a very good solution. We now save about 50% on our telephone bills compared with those that we used to receive from BT.

As is the case with many organisations, telephone costs are recharged to different cost centers within the Association. The billing information provided by Redstone Telecom makes this a very simple and straightforward exercise. Neville Reid receives the information on a CD rather than the reams of paper previously supplied. A monthly summary gives details of calls by time of day, together with reports on the top ten dialled numbers and other relevant management information. Neville Reid: “As part of our regular review process, we looked at another supplier of Indirect Access and found that their level of service compared with that of Redstone Telecom was very disappointing. I firmly believe that Redstone Telecom provides an efficient, cost-effective and pro-active service to Poplar HARCA”.