Michigan Sugar Company, Bay City, Michigan
Michigan Sugar Company is the largest sugar beet processor east of the Mississippi River and fourth largest in the United States. The Company is a cooperative owned by approximately 1,300 sugar beet growers, employing 450 year-round employees and 1,750 seasonal. It generates nearly $300 million in direct economic activity annually in the local communities in which it operates.
In 2005, the company was in the process of a major acquisition. The company was in the planning stages of moving its corporate facilities to Bay City, Michigan from Saginaw when a problem arose. The buried phone cable that supplied connectivity to the endpoints of the current phone system was damaged and was running out of capacity quickly. With all of the administrative offices poised to move to the new facility, the company needed a solution.
The sales team at VerCom met with the management of Michigan Sugar and explained the benefits of deploying an IP solution which could not only utilize the investment in the data network infrastructure at the Bay City facility and avoid the buried cable problem but provide a solution that could bring a unified coomunication platform to the seven facilities throughout the company.
To date, the company has deployed (4) servers and (275) phones in its main plant facilities in Bay City, Sebaewing, Croswell and Caro Michigan and has tied in other locations using VPN connections across its point to point T1 that link its facilities. The company is realizing many efficiences and cost savings due to 3-digit extension dialling between facilities, reduced long distance expense, common system management and remote support advantages.
Canterbury Schools, FT. Wayne, Indiana
Canterbury School is an independent, coeducational day school offering a college-preparatory education to students in early childhood through Grade 12. The school seeks to enroll students of diverse talents and backgrounds. Canterbury promotes the total development of each child in his or her intellectual, physical, social and spiritual growth.
In 2007, the school was actively pursuing an IP phone solution when the VerCom team met them at a tradeshow event in Indianapolis, Indiana. The school was looking for a IP phone system to integrate its three school buildings that were spread about the local area and brought together by use of high-speed wireless LAN network. The school was also looking for a non-proprietary, open source solution.
To date, the school has deployed (3) IPlex IP PBX servers in its buildings with (85) phones. The main features used in this deployment are extension dialling between facilities and the web-based management tools that allow the technology coordinator to manage the entire campus wide system from any PC in the district.
Globe Motors, Dayton, Ohio
Globe Motors designs, manufactures, and distributes precision, subfractional horsepower motors and motorized devices throughout the world. For over half a century, since its founding by entrepreneur Max Isaacson, the Globe Motors name has meant turnkey, motion control solutions for valued customers that depend on performance to achieve competitive advantage.
In 2007, Globe set out on a major telephony project to replace their aging Rolm phone system that had supported operations for the last 30 years. Since the company was interested in an Asterisk® solution, the company approached the team at Digium® to see what its options were. Due to our close ties with Digium® and our proximity to the potential client, Digium® contacted the engineering team at VerCom. After several meetings with the IT department and senior management at Globe, VerCom was awarded the contract and to date has placed (6) IPlex servers and over (300) phones in Globe facilities in Ohio, Alabama and Mexico.
Parts Express, Springboro, Ohio
Parts Express has been a provider of electronic parts and accessories to the audio/video industry since 1986. They offer their customers - from sound technicians to audio enthusiasts - the finest audio and video parts for quality home and professional installations, all at highly discounted prices. The corporate office and warehouse of Parts Express is located in a 120,000 square foot facility in Springboro, Ohio, about 25 minutes north of Cincinnati.
In 2007, the company was at a crossroads with their phone system. In order to get the features and functionality desired, the company was going to have to pay for a significant upgrade to the system. They decided to invite in a few local vendors to see what options were on the market. The VerCom team met with the management team and proposed the IPlex system. Based on their need for a call center application for their catalog business, The IPlex solution was a good fit. In addition, the team at VerCom was able to provide custom reports for the Call Center manager, which has helped her manage her team and provide better service to the clients of Parts Express.
To date, (2) IPlex servers and (95) phones have been deployed at the two sites for Parts Express.
