Download as PDF

Customer description:

Small company with two locations:

Location 1 in Georgia with 5 employees

Location 2 in Ohio with 4 employees.

Current phone service and systems:

Georgia location has four local phone lines at $43 per month each, connected to multi line phones. One main voice mail box. 5 employees at this location.

Ohio location has three local phone lines at $47 per month each, connected to multi line phones. One main voice mail box. 5 employees at this location

Both locations make heavy use of cell phones due to lack of direct dial numbers or extensions for employees.

Current long distance and toll free usage:

One toll free number for each location. Cost $0.065 per minute.

Total monthly Toll Free bill averages $220.00 (Abound 3,400 minutes per month, and increasing).

Long distance at $0.05 per minute.

Total Long Distance bill averages $350 per month, of which $170 is location to location. (About 7,000 minutes per month, about 3,400 of which are location to location).

Current Internet Access:

Georgia has 1 Meg down, 1 Meg Up DSL line

Ohio has 768 down, 256K Up DSL line.

Specific problems with current service/systems:

High cost

Poor communication

Many customer calls go to voice mail even during working hours.

Many customers call employee cell phones directly, causing calls to end in voice mail if employee not available.

No way for people at each location to know who is available at other location before calling.

Customer Goals:

1. Improve handling of customer calls, with focus on call reaching live human quickly during business hours.

2. Have voice menu after hours to allow customers to check order status by phone, and to reach on-call person for support issues after hours.

3. Improve communication between locations.

4. Lower cost.

5. Hosted PBX system to avoid any on-site servers etc.

Questions we asked:

Question: Can employees at each location handle customer calls from other location? Answer: yes

Question: Is there any value to being able to record calls, or to silent monitor calls? (Where a supervisor listens in to a call in progress). Answer: No

Question: Is there enough call volume to require call queuing, or a need to tell callers their position in queue and estimated wait time? Answer: No. Call volume not that high. As long as calls can route to both locations no need for call queues.

Question: Is there a value to allowing employees to work from home while maintaining good communications? Answer: Yes, as long as it does not cost extra.

Question: Can Ohio DSL line be upgraded to faster connection? Answer: Yes, for additional $40 per month can go to 4 Meg down, 1.5 Meg up.

Question: What do you think missing customer calls is costing your business per month in lost profit? Answer: Several thousand Dollars per month.

Proposal in brief:

Hosted PBX running our Enterprise Edition PBX system.

Ten extensions with basic IP phones.

Leave DSL line in place at each location, with that analog line used for fax machine.

Port main number at each location and the two toll free numbers to our system.

Up front cost $3,300 including IP phones. Monthly savings $390.00

Detailed features with direct impact on this customer:

1. All extensions at both locations are on the same PBX. This means that:

   1. Location to location calls are free.

   2. Inbound calls on any number can simultaneously ring phones at both locations.

   3. Employees can change the forwarding on their phones to send calls to the receptionist when they are not available

   4. Using the HUD software on their PCs, employees can see the status of every other employee instantly. I.e. someone in Ohio knows if someone in Georgia is on their phone before trying to transfer a call to them.

2. Numbers can ring into auto-attendants where customers may dial extensions, dial by name or select departments from the menu.

3. After hours calls go to a different menu automatically, where customers can check order status by phone or leave a message to be delivered to the person on call. The system actually works through a call list until it knows it has delivered the message (“This is an after hours support call. Enter your password to accept his call”).

4. Detailed reports show how many calls are missed, including showing the calling phone numbers when available!

5. Voice mail to email allows voice mail messages to be instantly delivered to multiple people.

6. Find-Me-Follow-Me allows calls to ring an employees desk phone, then forward out to their mobile or home phone while continuing to ring desk phone. Once a call is answered on a mobile phone it can still be transferred back to an extension on the PBX.

Relative costs:

Existing service costs:

Georgia location: 4 local lines @ $43 each = $172 per month

Ohio location: 3 local lines @ $47 each = $141 per month

Long distance:$350 per month

Toll Free Bill: $220 per month

Total: $883.00 per month

New system:

Several options available to customer:

1. Minimize up front cost by rolling the PBX, licenses, phones, installation and service contract into a lease, leaving only usage as a monthly cost.

2. Minimize monthly cost by purchasing the IP Phones, PBX, licenses and installation up front, paying monthly for the PBX hosting, phone numbers and usage (inbound toll free, outbound long distance).

3. Purchase the IP Phones, PBX and installation up front, paying monthly for the PBX licenses, hosting, phone numbers and usage (inbound toll free, outbound long distance).

Customer elected option 3 - purchase the phones, PBX and installation up front and pay monthly for PBX licenses and usage.

The customer selected Aastra 53i IP phones at a cost of $165.00 each.

One time costs:

Dedicated PBX server: $500.00

IP Phones (10 phones @ $165.00 each): $1,650.00

Installation and activation costs: $1,431.00

Porting two local and two toll free numbers: $71.80

Total up front cost $3,652.80.

Monthly costs:

PBX hosting: $105.00

PBX Licenses: $99.90

Regulatory fees (Universal service fund, E911 etc): $26.49

Support contract $59.90

Usage:

3,400 toll free minutes at $0.03 per minute = $102.00

3,400 location to location minutes FREE

3,600 Long Distance minutes @ $0.03 per minute = $108.00

Total monthly cost: $501.29

Customer has direct savings of almost $400 per month, for a direct return on investment of only nine months. If you count the “several thousand Dollars per month” in increased profit from better handling of customer calls, then the ROI is only one or two months!