Power Transmission Products Manufacturer

Texas-Based Manufacturer Cuts Costs, Boosts Collaboration with Unified Communications

With an outdated phone system in its head office and numerous incompatible phone systems in nearly 30 branch locations, this family-owned business was having trouble communicating internally and with customers. In 2008, the company installed an IP-PBX phone system and deployed Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007. This solution made it possible for the company to significantly reduce communications costs by switching from traditional phone service to a software-based voice over IP (VoIP) solution. Using Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, the client software for Office Communications Server 2007, employees now have far more flexible tools for communicating with others by phone, audio, video or Web conferencing, IM, or e-mail. With real-time presence information, employees can locate and collaborate with colleagues faster and ultimately respond more quickly to customer needs.

Situation

This family-owned manufacturing business in Texas designs and manufactures mechanical power transmission products, material-handling systems, and industrial hand tools for a variety of trades. Agriculture, chemical processing, food and beverage, pulp and paper, construction, mining, and textiles are just a few of the industries this company serves. With operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China, this manufacturer offers same-day delivery from its diverse locations, conveniently located in key cities close to customers. “We are a service-oriented organization. We don’t sell products, we sell service,” says the firm’s Vice President of Information Technology.

When you replace a 20-year-old phone and voice-mail system with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange Unified Messaging, there’s no comparison.  Vice President of Information Technology

To achieve the best service possible, however, the company needed to have a companywide phone system. The corporate office’s outdated phone system needed to be replaced, and there were at least twenty different types of phone systems and phone services in use in the company’s branch offices. When a location was short-staffed or closed due to weather-related conditions, customer calls often couldn’t be answered. Without a single companywide phone system there was no way to reroute the calls to other branch offices. To make matters worse, when customers left messages, the voice-mail system often didn’t deliver messages until hours or sometimes even days later. “We wanted to incorporate every branch office on one phone system so that we could transfer calls and take advantage of our sales and support staff wherever they’re located,” says the Vice President of Information Technology.

Another area the company wanted to improve was collaborative communications among its employees, such as its engineers, who use specialized engineering software to design products. Engineers in the head office resolve major design issues and often provide support and guidance to engineers in smaller branch offices. “There really wasn’t a good method for providing that support other than sending engineers to the site or making long-distance phone calls to walk them through how to use the software,” says the IT Vice President.

The company is an avid user of Microsoft® Office products, including Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 messaging and collaboration client, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, and Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005. Many employees use PCs, but the company also uses terminal servers, especially in the branch offices. Employees who have PCs enjoy instant messaging (IM) and presence information—the feature that indicates the real-time status and availability of other users. The company wanted to make these and other advanced features more widely available.

On a larger scale, the company trains employees in-house on software programs and safety regulations. It is happy with Microsoft Live Meeting, a hosted Web-conferencing service that makes it possible for employees in many locations to log in and participate in classroom-style Web-based training. But without a centralized companywide phone system, the company limits the use of Live Meeting to keep long-distance-calling fees down. “We wanted to minimize that cost and at the same time improve overall communications,” says the Director of Network and Computer Operations. The company’s ultimate goal was to replace its outdated PBX system and find a unified communications solution that supported voice over IP (VoIP).

Solution

Enabling Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that specializes in Unified Communications, Enterprise Messaging, IM, presence, security, and compliance applications, helped the company find and implement a new solution. It began by replacing the company’s outdated phone system with a Cisco IP-PBX solution. It then upgraded Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 to its successor, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Employees now use Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, the client software, which gives them access to e-mail, IM, presence, voice mail, telephony, and Web conferencing features. Office Communications Server 2007 includes enhanced support for IP-PBX systems. With this solution the company was able to eliminate the multiple phone companies and services used in branch offices and switch companywide to a software-powered VoIP solution. “Enabling Technologies played an important role in deploying this solution. Enabling has the expertise we needed to switch our phone service to VoIP, handle all the external connectivity, the certificates, the naming, and so on,” says the VP of Information Technology.

The voice features in Office Communications Server 2007 and the integration with our PBX system make it possible for us to respond faster to customer questions.  Director of Network and Computer Operations

Currently, 254 employees in the company’s head offices in Arlington, Texas, are using the new solution, which includes the voice and conferencing capabilities of Office Communications Server 2007 in addition to Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging. In the coming months, the solution will gradually be deployed in the branch offices, replacing the twenty or more phone systems currently in use. “It will take some time to integrate all of the offices because some of them will need upgraded hardware, but we are actively working to deploy the solution in every branch office as soon as possible,” says the Director of Network and Computer Operations.

Benefits

The new unified communications solution has helped unite this company by providing tools to encourage and simplify collaboration. “The strength of this solution is the overall improvement in the ability to communicate,” says the IT Vice President. “When you replace a 20-year-old phone and voice-mail system with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, there’s no comparison.”

Reduced Costs

By switching from traditional phone service to VoIP, this manufacturing company was able to cut the number of vendors it deals with in branch offices from twenty to just one. The solution automatically reduced the complexity of telecommunications and reduced costs. “Office Communications Server 2007 definitely helps reduce our total cost of ownership. We’re reducing the number of phone lines we have in branch offices; we’re reducing the outside service cost; and we’re reducing the cost for phone calls between locations. Overall, once the solution is completely rolled out, we’re projecting a year and a half to two years to payback,” says the Director of Network and Computer Operations. In addition, the audio, video, and Web conferencing capabilities built into this solution have helped the company cut travel expenses. By opting to hold informal video calls or Web conferences with colleagues, employees such as engineers can virtually eliminate traveling to branch offices, thereby increasing their productivity and controlling costs at the same time.

Faster Communications and Increased Productivity

“The enhanced voice capabilities of Office Communications Server 2007 are probably the most important new features of the product,” says the Director of Network and Computer Operations. Because Office Communications Server 2007 is fully integrated with Microsoft Office Outlook and Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, employees can now choose their preferred mode of communication, whether by instant message, e-mail, or phone—in one-on-one or group voice calls, with or without video.

Incoming calls appear on every connected device or client, such as the user’s traditional PBX phone, cell phone, Office Communicator client, or Outlook Inbox, and can be answered however the user chooses. Users can retrieve voice-mail messages immediately instead of hours or days later as before. Similarly, employees now have far more options for placing calls besides the traditional PBX phone. They can call from their PC simply by clicking a contact in Office Outlook 2007 or Office Communicator 2007. And when they are away from the office, employees can have all of their calls routed to their cell phones or use their PCs like a phone to place and receive calls, e-mail, and voice-mail messages. All of these features give employees more flexibility and help them to communicate with coworkers and customers more quickly than before. As a result, they are able to complete tasks more quickly, resolve issues within minutes rather than days, and respond to customer needs and requests more efficiently. “We have definitely seen a reduction in the time it takes to contact a person, because people have multiple ways to do it now—and get an answer quickly,” says the Network and Computer Operations Director. “As we roll the solution out to more of our locations, it will be even easier to get quick answers. We have a lot of interaction between our remote locations and our central office, especially for quoting because we do a lot of special-order products. That whole communication process will be a lot quicker and easier because we’ll have multiple ways to communicate, and we have the added benefit of presence information.”

Improved Collaboration

Access to presence information, which indicates real-time status and availability of users, is a key component in helping employees collaborate effectively. With Office Communicator 2007, users can instantly see whether someone is on the phone, available to talk or meet, does not want to be disturbed, or is out of the office. The value of presence information is often not fully appreciated until employees actually have the feature available to them. It is estimated that presence information saves users at least 30 minutes per week by eliminating phone and e-mail tag. “Before, presence information wasn’t integrated with the phone system, so you couldn’t tell when someone was on the phone, in the shop, or in a meeting. We wanted employees to be able to see who was available and when,” says the Director of Network and Computer Operations.

With ready access to presence information, employees are now using IM and other collaboration features differently. For example, employees might start an IM conversation with someone, then transition to a voice call simply by clicking the Call button in the Conversation window in Office Communicator 2007. If other people need to be consulted, they can easily be added to a voice conversation—with or without video. And with a click of the mouse, an employee can transition an informal conference to a Web conference and invite as many people as necessary to attend. 

Better Customer Service and Satisfaction

The company prides itself on providing human contact when its customers call, and the new solution will help it continue to do that. “We don’t want a customer to call in and get an automated attendant unless it’s after hours,” says the Director of Network and Computer Operations. “The voice features in Office Communications Server 2007 and the integration with our IP-PBX system make it possible for us to respond faster to customer questions. Before, every incoming call had to go through an operator. Now, an employee can transfer a call to anybody in any location without having to put down the phone and redial. Calls will go through more directly now. Customers will have easier access to employees, and they will see quicker quote response time. We expect to be more effective in everything we do. Overall, we are very pleased with the new features of Office Communications Server 2007. It all works the way we expected it to.”

For the immediate future, full rollout is the company’s primary task. Afterward, the company hopes to experiment more with Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and evaluate the benefits of integrating it into its existing solution. “For our accounting department, we are also interested in Microsoft Business Solutions—Axapta®,” says the Vice President of IT. “It would definitely be a product that would take advantage of our existing infrastructure.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/

For more information about Enabling Technologies Corp. products and services, call (800) 923-4310 or visit the Web site at:
http://www.enablingtechcorp.com/

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Document published July 2008