Cisco Unified Communications for New Headquarters

Customer: Global supplier of merchandising systems and accessories
Location: Northeast Ohio

Highlights

A leading global supplier of merchandising systems and accessories was in the initial stages of planning its corporate relocation and determined that increased collaboration between the headquarters and outlying office locations was critical to creating a nationwide virtual campus. MCPc worked with the customer to design an upgrade to their data/voice system that would solidify their current business processes while adding critical new layers that improved overall internal and external communications capabilities.

Benefits

• Employees now have direct and automated access to key customer data throughout the enterprise.
• The client saw an increase in collaboration efficiencies between Customer Service and Inside Sales teams across multiple company locations.
• Communication barriers, both internal and external, have been eliminated through the use of a strategic dial-plan and interconnectivity.

Business Need

This client, a Northeast Ohio-based global supplier of merchandising systems and accessories, was outgrowing its facilities and began to make plans to relocate its headquarters to a larger space. The company’s IT staff saw this move into a more advanced facility with a new datacenter as an ideal opportunity to execute a network upgrade — to Cisco Unified Communications, as was eventually determined with the help of MCPc consultants.

A transition to a new network platform can often grow into a complicated and expensive project. And with a costly, resource-consuming relocation underway, budgeting became a particularly critical issue in the network redesign.

The timing and logistics of this project also presented a significant challenge. The company was facing a tight deadline to move out of its existing facility. However, the new Unified Communications implementation was one of several IT components that had to be completed prior to the official office relocation.

The client also needed a network solution that would tie together the new headquarters with auxiliary offices in Kentucky and Arkansas.

Solution

MCPc had several meetings with the client to better understand and define their requirements. The account team brought the customer to the Northeast Ohio Cisco Solution Center to present and demonstrate the technology. They also accompanied a group of stakeholders from the client company on a visit to a current MCPc customer’s Cisco Contact Center. These engagements gave the MCPc solution architects an in-depth picture of their business processes, allowing them to recommend the combination of network tools that would enhance their communications and collaboration.

MCPc recognized the importance of the client’s budget constraints and worked with them to bring scope to the project, providing consultation that helped to separate the essential solution components from the nice-to-haves so that cost overruns would be reigned in.

The resulting solution tied together the three offices with a comprehensive Cisco communications suite, the necessary hardware, and a staff-training program to ensure that all the pieces would fit together in the new IT environment. Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition, the IP telephony call-processing component of Unified Communications, was configured and installed to unify the workspace by integrating every combination of applications, devices, networks, and operating systems. Cisco Unity Connection was added to give users access to voice messages and the ability to view, search, sort, and play messages on a Cisco Unified IP Phone display. Cisco Unity Connection also provides comprehensive automated-attendant functions, including intelligent call routing and easily customizable call screens and message-notification options. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express was installed to provide the client with a virtual, streamlined, and easy-to-use customer interaction management tool for up to 300 agents.

Staff was provided with Cisco Unified IP Phones setup for XML and wireless LAN.

MCPc also administered a focused training program for all end users and appropriate supervisors before going live so they had a thorough understanding of both the overall Unified Communications portfolio and the functionality of each individual component.

Flexibility was an important factor early on when it became clear that a component outside of the primary solution was necessary to accommodate the client’s specific standards for customer service call recording and archiving. MCPc was able to adapt the project plan and integrate call-recording software from Telrex into the design. This ensured they would have a full voice-recording system that supported their customer service standards without adding to the project budget.

Throughout the engagement, MCPc adhered to Cisco best-practice standards for device groups, route plans, security settings, and gateway configurations.

Results

All three offices are now fully integrated into one network, employees are able to 4-digit dial amongst each other, regardless of location, and the company has seen a significant across-the-board increase in collaboration efficiencies between Customer Service and Inside Sales.

Employees now have direct access to critical data on customer interactions in a universalized system, and intelligent, automated call trees ensure that inbound customer service calls are delivered to the right agent as quickly as possible.

Barriers to communication — between departments, locations, and the company and its customers — have been eliminated.

If your organization’s outdated network is inhibiting collaboration, customer service, or access to customer intelligence, MCPc is ready to discuss a comprehensive solution designed around your unique business needs.