Feature

Lance Owen Unifies Communications

Lance Owen Unifies Communications


Reseller TMG has supplied the London based Vauxhall and Saab specialist Lance Owen Group IP Business Telephone Systems across their eight car showrooms & Group Parts & Service Centre.

London based Lance Owen wanted to present a unified image to their customers - whichever location they choose to call - improve the efficiency of staff conducting phone calls and data transactions between sites, and to significantly reduce their telecommunications costs.

To satisfy their need to pass voice and data between their sites Lance Owen chose BT’s Metro VPN. With a 2 Mbps service to the four largest sites and 256 kbps to the other four showrooms, the ability of BT’s offering to provide Quality of Service (QoS), ensuring telephone calls could be sent between sites “in real time,” so preserving the integrity of speech, proved crucial in its choice.

After selecting the underlying infrastructure, the focus then fell upon the telephone system. A chance sales call from Bromsgrove based reseller TMG plc introduced Lance Owen’s Operations Director, Charles Stakowski, to UK based SpliceCom. “SpliceCom’s maximiser was exactly what we were looking for in a new telephone system. Pure IP in its design, I especially liked the idea of it offering lower cost analogue system phones - ideal for the majority of our employees - in addition to higher specification IP phones. maximiser’s ability to provide a single unified telephone system across our entire business, its flexibility in both provisioning and use and its pricing structure for upgrades - allowing us to clearly understand exactly what it will cost us to add more extensions at an existing showroom or to bring a new location on-board - made it the clear winner for Lance Owen.”

Andy Jackson, Group IT & Warranty Manager commented, “maximiser’s modular

construction made the installation process very straight forward. The first four sites were installed in four days. After a weeks break, the second four sites were also installed in the same time period. “The TMG engineers that were sent to our various sites were professional and were prepared to go out of their way to get the job done. Overall, we were very impressed with the attitude and determination of the team to provide us with a fully working system as soon as possible. Such levels of service are rare amongst our suppliers and I would not hesitate to recommend TMG and the SpliceCom maximiser system. It's a great product and we have yet to find anything that it cannot do,”

“The installation of the VPN and the maximiser telephone system was directly responsible for a 15% improvement in staff performance,” stated Charles Stakowski. “We've achieved cost savings by eliminating the need for the external company we'd traditionally used to answer and transfer calls made to our 0870 number. Add to that the use of a single service between sites for all voice and data traffic and its clear to see just why we're so happy with the new system.” By deploying a single telephone system and the same handsets at each of their eight locations it has become far easier for The Lance Owen Group to present a unified image to their customers and removed the niggling communications issues faced by their managers as they move between sites.

“maximiser allows us to automate many aspects of the day-to-day management of our company communications, freeing up time that can be more productively spent addressing more strategic issues,” continues Charles Stakowski. “The SpliceLog call management system automatically generates an email to the Group directors should any call exceed pre-defined time or cost thresholds. The same is true for calls placed to high cost premium rate numbers. We also use the in-built call recording capabilities of maximiser for training and reference purposes. Once again, these call recordings can be automatically emailed to the relevant departmental manager.”

SpliceCom’s maximiser has provided Lance Owen with a single, unified, business telephone system that will allow the business to continue its expansion safe in the knowledge that it will no longer need to worry about capacity planning. The Group also intends to investigate how other system features could further benefit their business. This includes Mobile Extension Anywhere, to seamlessly deliver personal DDI and Departmental calls to managers when they’re out on the road - and to allow them to transfer the call to other colleagues - Hot Desking for employees who move between sites and SpliceQueue, which provides real-time wallboard information on calls queuing for a business department or marketing campaign, etc.

 

Customer Benefits Achieved
Improvement in customer service levels.
Presents unified Group image
Easy to transfer calls between Group locations
Commercial Benefits
Scalable, IP based, modular system with no capacity limits provides a platform for future business expansion
 plans.
Communications management enhanced through Call Recording and Call Management.
Previous requirement for 3rd party 0870 call answering and transfer service eliminated.
Single Virtual Private Network (VPN) transports voice and data between sites - reduces costs and increases
 bandwidth.
Increased VPN bandwidth produced an Immediate 15% increase in staff productivity.
Staff Benefits
Single system allows calls to be routed or transferred seamlessly between locations.
Personal choice of using desk-top telephone with our without PCS 50 Phone Partner application.
Mobility and Hot Desking for key staff to be explored.
 

 

Lance Owen - www.lanceowen.co.uk
TMG - www.tmgtelecom.co.uk
SpliceCom - www.splicecom.com