Onboarding Date: April 2020
Background
Esther Price, a fine chocolate & candy company based in Dayton, Ohio—steeped in a heritage dating back to the 1920s—has been delighting customers with handmade chocolates for over 100 years. Despite its long-standing success, the company faced challenges with outdated, disjointed communication systems spread across its multiple locations.
Challenges
- Disparate Phone Systems: Operating from 7 physical locations, the company had multiple, unintegrated phone systems causing inefficiencies.
- Complex Billing and Ordering: Decentralized systems led to complicated billing and ordering processes.
- Legacy Infrastructure: Integration difficulties arose from the existing overhead paging (legacy paging) infrastructure.
- Support Needs: The company required robust local, remote, and on-site support to manage these challenges effectively.
VerCom’s Solution
VerCom stepped in to modernize the communication landscape with a comprehensive approach:
- Unified Communication System: Consolidated the multiple phone systems into a single, streamlined solution.
- Centralized Billing and Ordering: Simplified administrative tasks by centralizing billing and ordering functions.
- Legacy Integration: Seamlessly integrated the legacy overhead paging system with modern communications.
- Flexible Support Model: Provided local, remote, and on-site support to ensure a smooth transition and ongoing operational stability.
- Modern PBX Environment: Deployed a virtual/hosted IPlex PBX system that supports:
- Extensions: 63
- Deskphones: 67
- Softphones: 10
- Callcenter: 1 ACD group
- Facilities: 7
Benefits and Outcomes
- Streamlined Operations: IPlex’s Unified communications improved operational efficiency across all 7 locations.
- Enhanced Efficiency: Centralized billing and ordering reduced complexity and errors.
- Seamless Integration: The integration of the overhead paging system ensured continuous, reliable communication.
- Robust Support: Ongoing support (local, remote, and on-site) minimized disruptions and facilitated a smooth transition.
- Scalability: The virtual/hosted IPlex PBX environment provides a scalable foundation for future growth.
Conclusion
By leveraging VerCom’s expertise, Esther Price successfully transformed its communication infrastructure. This unified approach not only resolved the immediate challenges of disparate systems and legacy integrations but also laid the groundwork for future innovation—allowing the company to concentrate on its core mission of crafting exquisite handmade chocolates.