The German Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE) is a modern service-oriented governmental agency with a wide variety of responsibilities in the agricultural, food and consumer protection sector. With its headquarters in Bonn, fourteen other locations in Germany and a flexible field service staff, the BLE is on duty throughout Germany and insists on continuous reachability. Using the Avaya Mobility Manager (an OEM product from Speech Design) enables continuous on-the-job reachability for the field service staff, building services, IT and staff with family-friendly home offices for telecommuting.

The German Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE) is a public institution under direct federal government control in the business area of the Federal Agency of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). The president of the BLE is Dr. Robert Kloos.

 
With a variety of measures, the BLE supports the stability of the markets for agricultural products such as grain, fruit, meat and vegetables. It is responsible for the admission and inspection of most border-crossing agricultural goods and services. It inspects and monitors compliance with product quality and the use of renewable resources. To be prepared for any possible crisis, the BLE plans which foodstuffs would be needed by the population, acquires corresponding stocks and has them stored.

 
The BLE also supports the development of rural areas and supports a variety of research projects in the agricultural field. These include development plans, measures for technology and knowledge transfer, or projects to support innovation. It is the head office for German federal government programs such as organic farming, the "Bio" label and various contests such as "Eat better & Move more." The BLE also includes the Coordination Center for Biological Diversity.

 
In the area of fisheries, it monitors sea fishing on waters other than coastal waters and ensures compliance with the fishing catch quotas it imposes. It grants fishing permits to the German commercial fishing fleet and is responsible for managing the federal government's fishery guard ships and fishery research vessels. It is also the service center and scientific information agency for the BMELV.

In addition to its headquarters in Bonn, the BLE is represented at fourteen other locations in Germany, and its flexible inspection service is on duty throughout Germany.

As a modern service-oriented company, the BLE insists on continuous reachability and a family-friendly culture. The inspection service staff and many other employees have to be reachable independently of their office workplace and frequently make and receive calls on their cell phones.

The BLE was looking for a new PBX and wanted to improve the reachability of its employees. At the same time, it wanted to make employees' work time more flexible and oriented towards the needs of each individual. A home office solution presented the ideal solution.

The Avaya Mobility Manager (an OEM product from Speech Design) integrates both business and personal mobile and fixed-line phones into the PBX as an extension and thus makes it possible to move the workplace home.

The Mobility Manager ensures that the employees are available at home at their office number. For outgoing work-related calls made on home phones, only the office number is displayed. Thus the party to the call cannot see where the employee is working at the moment. The employee's privacy is protected.

A highly beneficial feature for both the BLE and the employee is that all work-related calls are made using Mobility Manager. The callback function ensures that the telephone charges are routed centrally via the PBX and not via employees' personal phone bills. Therefore, no administrative effort is incurred for reimbursing employees for their work-related calls.

Home workstations can be set up in just a few minutes without the need for further investments.

"Within half a day, the entire installation had been completed without any problems. The setup and administration is easy and uncomplicated," says Mr. Becker, who is responsible for the IT and telecommunications infrastructure.

-     Improved service due to continuous reachability, thus ensuring that inquiries are processed immediately (hold, call transfer, conference).

-    Optimized internal communication flow due to the integration of home workstations and mobile phones.

-    Flexibility with ability to configure settings at no charge (e.g. call forwarding), even while at home or on the road.

Country       
Germany

Industry
Civil service

Company

The BLE is a public institution in the business area of the Federal Agency of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). It was founded on January 1, 1995. Since 2005, its offices have been located in Bonn. The BLE has some 1000 employees, not including the approximately 200 crew members of the fishery research vessels and fishery guard ships.

 
Challenge

The BLE was looking for a new PBX and wanted to improve the reachability of its employees. At the same time, it wanted to make employees' work time more flexible.

 

Solution

The Avaya Mobility Manager (an OEM product from Speech Design) integrates both business and personal mobile and fixed-line phones into the PBX as an extension and thus makes it possible to move the workplace home.

 

Benefits

-    Better service

-   Optimized internal communication

-    Flexibility with ability to configure settings at no charge (e.g. call forwarding), even while at home or on the road.