Employees at KSG Hannover can see in their XPhone client which colleagues are available, in a Teams, Webex or Zoom call, or have activated call forwarding. Thanks to automatic calendar synchronisation, presence status is always up to date.
Real estate companies face a wide range of challenges: cost pressures on new builds and renovations, rising efficiency demands, and the need to protect sensitive data. At the same time, digitalisation is reshaping the workplace, and hybrid work models depend on flexible, powerful communication. The example of KSG Hannover GmbH shows how a modern communications system such as XPhone Connect can play a crucial role here.
With around 8,000 flats, KSG Hannover is the largest housing provider in towns and communities around Lower Saxony’s capital. As a municipal housing company, KSG carries significant responsibility for providing and managing affordable housing. Danilo Kardel, Head of IT at KSG, knows how vital modern communication is in this context. The challenge: connecting decentralised teams efficiently enough to ensure service quality and reachability for tenants.
“Our top priority is being available to our tenants. We achieve this by managing our communication channels through the Unified Communications software XPhone Connect,” says Kardel.
As KSG’s central communication hub, XPhone is installed at more than 100 workplaces.
“Our system landscape was already set. The UC solution had to build on this structure while still being flexible enough to allow us to modernise smoothly later on.”
Making Availability Visible
In practice, all communication activities – from phone calls to Teams meetings – are bundled in one place and visible at a glance. At the core is XPhone’s presence management: employees can instantly see who is available, in a Teams, Webex or Zoom call, or has activated forwarding.
Automatic synchronisation with the calendar keeps presence information always up to date. This is particularly crucial because KSG operates very decentralised structures: in addition to its head office, there are numerous satellite offices, caretaker offices and community meeting points – with some staff working remotely from home.
“Every customer interaction generates data. Protecting that data is our top priority.”
Flexible integration into a secure IT infrastructure
For Kardel, it was essential that the UC solution integrated seamlessly with the existing IT landscape. Existing PBXs had to remain in use for cost reasons, and strict security requirements had to be met. “Our system landscape was set in stone. The UC software had to build on this structure – and still be flexible enough to allow smooth modernisation later,” explains Kardel.
Linking business applications with telephony
Whether communicating with tenants, partners or project teams on new builds – efficient collaboration requires fast access to contact data, ideally linked directly to telephony.
KSG has connected its ECM system (Enterprise Content Management) with XPhone. This means staff instantly know which customer is calling and can process requests faster. The integration with groupware massively boosts efficiency.
Kardel has also connected the public phonebook, so numbers can be searched directly in the client and incoming calls easily identified. Additional systems such as Outlook, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce or SAP can be integrated into XPhone Connect.
Data protection in focus
With digitalisation, demands on data protection are growing. Handling sensitive tenant and contract data requires the highest standards. Kardel stresses the importance of GDPR-compliant infrastructure and encrypted connections to ensure secure, compliant communication.
“With every customer contact, we generate data. Protecting it is our top priority.” Access to data on the move is also increasingly important. This is the next step Kardel plans to address.
