VoIP and the SME

Copyright © 2007-2008, Gordon Henderson

Case Studies

Here are a few case studies on existing clients to give you some idea of how VoIP can be deployed and how it can be made to work for you.

The Devon Furniture Forum

The Devon Furniture Forum is a not-for-profit social business working in Devon and the South West, dedicated to recycling and reuse of household materials, furniture, white goods and much more. Please see their website for more information.

The DFF currently has a head-office and 3 outlying shops. The head-office is also a shop and has extensive repair and recycling facilities for white goods and so on. It's a large warehouse type place with many separate offices and departments. They have 2 phone lines - one FAX, one voice, and were finding it troublesome using these systems as the enterprise was expanding. They had a DECT phone system which they could use to take calls and transfer them to other staff members, but they were experiencing frustration when trying to make an outgoing call when the line was in-use (it was hunt the second DECT phone connected to the FAX machine time!)

The DFF were slowly expanding and they needed more phones and a way to better to manage their calls as they grew, and were also looking at ways to use the Internet to communicate from the head office to the outlying shops. They had tried Skype and found it wasn't working too well for them.

We installed a DSX-10 PABX system in their main office with new phones for all staff. The phones are a mixture of standard desk phones, and individual DECT phones for staff members who are rarely at their desk, and for the shop-floor staff who frequently have to walk round the shop area checking goods for customers who call in with queries about specific items. The DSX enabled them to make better use of their existing phone lines, as the system would automatically dial-out on the FAX line first, then the main line if that was busy, and a set of phones were nominated to ring when an incoming call happened on the main line. Whoever answered the call could then transfer the call to appropriate person, which then freed up their own phone to make outgoing calls, or to call other internal extensions.

Phase 2 was to get the outlying shops connected up to the head office, and this was accomplished using DECT phones which have a dual PSTN and Internet connectivity base station (The Siemens C460IP) Shop staff simply pick up the phone and dial a number as usual, and it is then placed over their existing BT line, or they dial an internal extension number followed by a star, and it connects them to the person at the far-end. They can even dial between shops using the system, all entirely over the Internet for free.

Latterly the head office started to use the Internet to place outgoing calls through. We are able to route their calls to the PSTN and arrange the correct caller ID number presentation of their main office. They are saving money by placing their outgoing calls in this manner.

For the future: DFF are looking to take on more staff as they get involved with more recycling and reuse projects. We will provide them with more telephone numbers for these projects which will be delivered over their Internet connection. They are also now using a FAX to email system which saves paper and makes it easier to delete junk FAXes!

The Nature Picture Library

The Nature Picture Library is a picture library specialising in very high quality nature imagery for professionals.

Towards the end of 2007, they were looking to move offices, so Drogon Systems assisted them with the migration of their telephony systems. Their old office had a managed phone system, which their new office didn't have, so they were looking for a completely new system. Drogon Systems was able to allocate their new numbers in advance and provide a FAX to Email service for them to use in advance of their office move. This helped them to let their customers, etc. know their new numbers in advance.

For their new office, Drogon Systems assisted with the installation of a new telephone line and a business-quality ADSL broadband service. They have an in-office PBX (a standard DSX-10 system), with desk phones. They use their ADSL line for their telephony services to make and take phone calls. Their calls go via Drogon Systems central servers which interface to the PSTN.

The system works like any other office PBX system - in addition to a DDI number for each phone, there is a hunt-group for their main office number - this rings a small number of phones in turn before ending up in voicemail if no-one answers. Their ADSL line can handle up to 8 simultaneous calls.

A recent addition to their incoming numbers has been a US Toll-Free number which is routed to their PBX, so they can answer this number from their office in Bristol whenever someone is the US calls in for free.

SuperTramp

SuperTramp is a trampoline and sports equipment specialist distribution company. They sell to sports centres as well as to the general public through retailers.

SuprTramp aren't actually using any of what might be initially recognised as modern VoIP features - They have traditional ISDN2e connections, but when they moved offices in the Autumn of 2007, they wanted a system that was more flexible than their existing PBX, and they wanted to use existing Cat-5 (Ethernet) wiring in their new building. As the DSX-10 uses Cat-5/Ethernet to communicate with the desk phones, this was seen as a positive way forward, not needing a separate wiring system for their phones. The DSX provides an Interactive menu system to callers with an automatic night-mode system to send calls directly to the answering machine (voicemail) out of hours.

They are looking to the future, and now that they have a VoIP capable PBX, they are looking at reducing calls by making use of Internet telephony, and allowing their sales team the flexibility to work from home, if required.

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