Communication is the backbone of business today and making changes to the way your business communicates can be stressful and challenging. We have had a relationship with a high-profile franchising business for over 10 years, and they reached out to us to explore options for moving from a premise-based phone system to a cloud-based communication platform. This franchising business aims to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to open businesses focused on the resale of goods like second-hand clothing, second-hand children’s clothing, and sports equipment. They aim to increase sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint. In their business, staying connected and supporting their franchisees is the number one priority.
Making a Change
Up until the end of 2019, they had been relying on a premise-based Avaya phone system. A premise-based phone system is physically installed into a building and generally consists of wiring from desk phones to the data center. Premise-based phone systems require consistent maintenance, often by a 3rd party, and due to the amount of hardware, are expensive to install and maintain.
They were looking for a communication platform that could manage voice, voicemail, instant messaging, and video calls at the same time. We worked with their team to research different options that would work for their needs and landed on RingCentral. RingCentral is a cloud-based platform with applications that can be downloaded onto your desktop, tablet, or mobile device. Physical desk phones and soft phones or headsets are available for businesses as well. The beauty of RingCentral is that your desk phone number is accessible anywhere, any time. With the application installed on your phone, you never have to miss an important call while you are away from the office.
RingCentral
Our customer spends millions of dollars per year on travel to visit franchise stores. Many of their employees travel up to two weeks per month. With RingCentral they found that they can save much of this cost by doing virtual meetings and virtual site visits. They rolled out RingCentral in February 2020, which ended up being two weeks before COVID-19 shut down travel and in-person office work across the nation. Our primary contact said “he feels like the luckiest man in the world for having rolled out RingCentral ahead of the shut-down. If it were not for this tool, we wouldn’t have been able to provide home desk phones to our employees fast enough.”
This franchising business operates with the motto that “a happy employee is a great employee” and feel that RingCentral has and will continue to enable employees to spend more time home with their families, and less time traveling or on the road.
Their employees spend a lot of time on the phone with franchises and partners in their business. Another benefit of RingCentral is the voicemail transcription capability. This means that voicemails are transcribed to text and emailed to the recipient which makes it easy for employees to see what is urgent and what can wait while on a different phone call. With a premise-based phone system, voicemail transcription is often a 3rd party add-on with additional cost.
RingCentral integrates out of the box with most major CRM platforms. Meaning you can make a call directly from your CRM, log the call record, and record notes seamlessly. With employees working remote or traveling to visit franchise locations, CRM integration keeps interactions logged for future reference.
A Lasting Partnership
Jason Cardwell at Matrix-NDI helped our customer, who wished to remain anonymous, with analyzing their current IT infrastructure and Avaya phone system. After looking at what they currently had and comparing it to the needs they discussed, Jason helped research and plan the implementation of RingCentral. They said that “Jason’s help with the analysis, research, and planning was integral in the smooth transition from Avaya premise-based phones to cloud-based RingCentral.”
We value our partnership with this customer and look forward to supporting them for many years to come. Their commitment to sustainability and supporting local business is paving the way to an eco-friendlier economy.