Customer Success Story
After outgrowing its telephone system, JVA cut costs and improved service by replacing it with Cisco CallManager and a managed, IP-based voice-and-data service from Cbeyond. Responsiveness improved because all employees now have their own DID phone numbers. Employees are more productive because of features such as Cisco Unity unified messaging, which allows them to access voice messages, faxes, and e-mails in one place: the e-mail inbox. Costs dropped because interoffice calls travel over the company LAN, and the monthly cost for DID numbers is far less than the cost for dedicated phone lines. And by offloading phone maintenance and full-time LAN management to Aardvark IT Solutions, a Cisco certified channel partner and Cbeyond channel partner, JVA can assign its IT staff to more strategic projects.
Business Challenge
JVA, Incorporated is a consulting structural and civil engineering firm with headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, and offices in Fort Collins and Winter Park. The firm's 55 employees specialize in municipal projects such as schools, waste water treatment plants, and roads.
When the company reached the capacity limits of its previous telephone system, it faced a decision: purchase an upgrade or consider another type of solution. The existing key system had several drawbacks. For one, if all lines to a particular office were in use, callers received busy signals even if lines to the other offices were available. In addition, each office had its own providers for local, long-distance, and Internet service, which meant the company had to monitor and pay nine bills each month. Finally, adding a new phone or fax number cost approximately US$50 per month, making it prohibitively costly to give each employee a separate phone number. This inconvenienced clients who dialed the company's main number and then asked for an extension, only to find out that the employee they were trying to reach was in a different office with a different phone number.
JVA investigated solutions that would overcome these limitations and also improve communications with clients and staff in other offices. For example, caller ID would help employees respond to urgent calls instead of allowing them to roll over to voice mail. The ability to forward voice mails would facilitate collaboration among employees in different offices. "We also wanted to be able to forward calls to employees' cell phones when they were visiting job sites," adds Cindy Ward, office manager.
Scalability ranked high as a requirement for the new voice solution. "Having outgrown one voice system, we wanted a solution that we could count on for a long time," says Howard McHenry, IT manager.
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"The Cisco IP Communications solution has definitely streamlined our flow of communication between our offices as well as with our customers." - Howard McHenry, Manager, IT |
Solution
JVA found the solution in a Cisco ISR and Cisco CallManager; a managed voice-and-data service from Cbeyond, a member of the Cisco Powered Network program; and implementation and management services from Aardvark IT Solutions, a Cisco certified channel partner.
All-in-One Device for Voice and Data
At the JVA main office, Aardvark installed a Cisco ISR that connects directly to the Cbeyond network over a T1 line. Fourteen inbound lines are shared among the three offices.
The Cisco ISR provides all major network functions that JVA needs in one device: voice, VPN, firewall, and traditional routing. "Besides the Cisco ISR, the only other equipment that JVA needs are a Cisco CallManager server, Cisco IP phones, and PCs," says Wray Smith, Aardvark president.
Direct Inward Dial
Among the most important benefits of the Cisco IP Communications solution for JVA is DID for phone and fax numbers. All employees and fax machines have their own phone numbers that callers can dial directly. The call arrives over one of the company's 14 incoming lines, and then Cisco CallManager routes it to the appropriate Cisco IP Phone.
Savings are significant. In the Denver metropolitan area, DID numbers cost about US$0.15 apiece, whereas dedicated phone lines cost approximately US$50 a month, according to Smith. Now JVA can add 50 new phone numbers for US$7.50 month, compared to US$2500 a month with a traditional phone system.
Enhanced Emergency Calling Services
The Cisco IP Communications solution provides the same emergency calling capabilities as a traditional phone network. When a JVA employee calls the emergency number 9-1-1, the caller's phone number and address are transmitted to the public safety access point (PSAP). Moves, adds, and changes are registered automatically, so the information the first responders receive is up to date.
Managed IP Communications Service
Cbeyond and Aardvark IT Solutions collaborate to provide end-to-end voice and data solutions for small businesses such as JVA. Aardvark focuses on the customer premises, managing JVA's LAN and Cisco IP phones. Cbeyond, in turn, provides the secure, core IP network that serves as the interface to the outside world. Together, the two companies manage day-to-day network operations and proactively monitor the network so that JVA can focus on running its business.
As a member of the Cisco Powered Network Program, Cbeyond delivers its services over a network built end to end with Cisco Systems® equipment, delivering the performance and reliability that JVA requires. By providing Cisco IP Communications over a managed private infrastructure, Cbeyond can guarantee voice quality from the core to the network edge. In fact, customers such as JVA receive a service commitment: Cbeyond will meet its performance standards or else release the customer from the contract and help reimburse for the costs of returning to the previous provider.
Through the Cbeyond service, JVA receives enterprise-style operational efficiency, end-to-end security, and innovative technology, all without having to make a significant initial investment. "Our value proposition is to provide voice, broadband Internet, and enhanced applications such as voice mail, e-mail, and spam and virus filtering for the same price that customers typically pay for voice and low-end bandwidth," says Brooks Robinson, Cbeyond chief marketing officer.
Business Value
Scalability
"Our Cisco IP Communications solution from Cbeyond will grow in step with JVA," says McHenry. "We can add as many DID numbers as we need to support company growth." A growing company can start with Cisco CallManager Express and then move up to the larger Cisco CallManager system that JVA selected, continuing to use existing Cisco IP phones and Cisco routers and switches. Migration is quick and easy and does not disrupt normal business operations.
Fifty-Percent Reduction in Long-Distance Charges
Approximately 60 percent of JVA's outbound phone calls are to other offices. Now those calls travel over the company's LAN and WAN, avoiding toll charges. "Since we began using Cisco CallManager, our long-distance charges have disappeared," says McHenry. "We're anticipating 50-percent savings."
Single Network, Single Bill
By using Cbeyond for local, long-distance, and Internet services, JVA has simplified its bill-paying processes. "Now we receive one bill a month instead of nine, which reduces administrative overhead," says Ward.
Improved Interoffice Communication and Collaboration
Among the most valuable benefits of Cisco IP Communications for JVA is that all three offices now share an integrated phone system. Employees can forward calls or voice mail to employees in any other office. The company can page employees in any office using an application from Cisco partner Berbee. Messages are broadcast through the built-in speakers of employees' Cisco IP phones, saving JVA the cost of a dedicated paging system. "The Cisco IP Communications solution has definitely streamlined our flow of communication between our offices as well as with our customers," says McHenry.
Employee Self-Service
JVA administrators can use the Cbeyond Web interface to monitor their phone bill monthly as it accumulates and to perform management functions. For example, rather than calling the service provider to add a phone number to a hunt group - and not knowing until the next day if the change is effective - JVA can make the change itself and apply it instantly. Similarly, employees use the Web interface to change call- forwarding options, and the change takes effect immediately.
More Time to Focus on Core Business
"For a 55-person company, it makes more sense to out-task than to expand our own IT department," says McHenry. "By out-tasking to Aardvark and Cbeyond, we free up our internal resources for help desk support, benefit from their expertise in network reliability and security, and receive ideas for new network applications - all at about the same cost we'd pay for in-house support."
Increased Productivity
JVA employees have become more responsive and productive using advanced features of Cisco CallManager such as unified messaging, forwarding calls to different numbers based on time of day, simultaneous ring, and sequential ring. With Cisco Unity® unified messaging, JVA employees can listen to voice mails either from their phone or from their Microsoft Outlook inbox, where the voice mail appears as an audio attachment. "The Cisco solution is more than a telephone system," says McHenry. "It's a total communications package that also enables us to receive faxes, listen to voice mail, and retrieve e-mail from the e-mail inbox. Listening to a voice mail is as easy as opening an e-mail." JVA employees appreciate the ability to skip to any point in the message: "For the long talkers you can go to the end of the message to get the phone number and call back; for fast talkers you can slow them down," McHenry says.
JVA employees are also experimenting with creative ways to use Cisco Unity unified messaging with their wireless-enabled PDAs to further improve productivity and responsiveness. McHenry concludes, "Cisco Unity unified messaging helps JVA be more responsive to our customers, which increases our competitive advantage in a customer-service-based business."
For More Information
For more information about Cisco IP Communications, visit: http://www.cisco.com/go/businesscommunications.
For more information about other managed services for small businesses, visit: http://www.cisco.com/go/ms4smb.