Flynn Canada
The Challenge: Consolidating the Company's 18 Separate Phone Systems
Over the last several years, Flynn has experienced a steep growth curve, which is expected to continue. This rapid expansion brought the company's 18 separate phone systems to the end of their useful lives, requiring expensive support and impeding intra-company communications. For Flynn's IT team, adding extensions and voicemail boxes was a time-consuming headache. Flynn needed a unified communications solution to simplify system management, reduce support costs, and most importantly, foster teamwork company-wide.
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The Solution: A Nationwide ShoreTel IP Telephony System
After researching available options, Rod Ali, IT Director at Flynn concluded that a ShoreTel IP-based communications system was the best decision moving forward for Flynn, and could be easily managed by their current IT staff. "We already had an excellent relationship with ShoreTel partner IT Weapons," Mr. Ali said. "We were nearing the capacity of the Toronto office phone system, our largest office, and it was time to look at the whole phone picture. IT Weapons demonstrated ShoreTel for us so we could see and use the system, and then arranged a visit to one of their customers, who had a ShoreTel system already installed. We spoke with a non-technical employee who was able to reconfigure options for more than 100 people in less than a week. Plus, from past experience we knew we could rely on great service from IT Weapons."
The ShoreTel UC system offers a single image solution that meets the needs of companies of all sizes, enabling Flynn Canada to use enterprise-class features it needs on a reliable system that scales easily to keep pace with company growth.
Solution Snapshot
• ShoreTel IP Telephone System
• 15 Voice Switches
• 400+ ShorePhone IP Telephones
• ShoreWare Director management software
ShoreTel offers strong foundation for communications remodel
During the ShoreTel presentation, Mr. Ali and his team were particularly impressed with the management simplicity of the system because it did not require on-staff telephony experts. "We were attracted to its ease of use, and the advantages of having just one system to manage," Mr. Ali said. "We could see the cost savings from being able to make changes, and install new sites and users ourselves."
In addition to its ease of use and scalability, ShoreTel's feature set was “the big difference maker,” said Lee Wong, IT Operations Manager. “Compared to the competition, ShoreTel offered a better price for features we wanted, with a cost advantage of about 10 percent. Add in management ease, scalability and reliability, and the decision to go with ShoreTel was an obvious one.”
A perfect blueprint for company growth
Flynn replaced all of its stand-alone PBX systems with a single centrally managed ShoreTel UC system in a phased rollout across all offices. Since the ShoreTel UC system easily integrates with existing equipment, the company was able to carefully schedule new deployments according to time and budget considerations.
"As we rolled out to each office, training was a snap. IT Weapons provided training to our end users when we had a situation where an office needed a new phone system immediately,” Mr. Wong said. “My first project was to implement the ShoreTel system with little system management training. Although I was unfamiliar with ShoreTel, it was very easy to learn and the project went very smoothly."
ShoreTel's "plug and play" design streamlined Flynn Canada's implementation. Installation at the Toronto office was conducted over one weekend, moving more than 140 users over to the ShoreTel system. "Adding branches is simple,” Mr. Ali said. “For example, when we recently brought up the Winnipeg office, we finished two days early. It's that easy to scale and Lee is now managing the entire ShoreTel system, including all new rollouts."
The new ShoreTel system also enabled users to keep their existing extensions, and just add a digit, and with everyone on one directory, interoffice communications are much easier. “We’ve eliminated a lot of lost time dialing long distance numbers in our help desk operation—everyone can be reached via an internal extension, and ShoreTel's “hoteling” features let mobile employees carry their offices with them when they travel,” Mr. Ali said. “They can easily assign their extensions to any ShoreTel handset in any branch office. It's completely transparent to callers, and extremely efficient.”
Centralized management builds cost and time savings
ShoreTel's single-image architecture centralizes phone system management through an intuitive interface, ShoreWare Director. This enables anyone in the company’s IT group to monitor and manage the entire system from any web-based browser. ShoreWare Director also produces valuable reports that help Flynn monitor traffic, analyze communications patterns and optimize toll and WAN usage.
ShoreTel's unique distributed architecture also ensures high availability across the company. "Even though switches are in remote office locations, we don't need any in-house IT staff at branch locations to support the system,” Mr. Ali explained. “The cost savings in time and help desk calls are significant. In the past, we had to rely on outside vendors and it could take as much as two weeks to handle calls. Now, we can handle many calls the same day, or within a couple of days."
Since installation, the ShoreTel system has received outstanding reviews from Flynn Canada's staff. Features like integration with Microsoft Outlook, voicemail-to-e-mail in-boxes, and the ability to retrieve voicemail from BlackBerry and other devices, helps internal and mobile employees work smarter and more effectively. Another ShoreTel feature that saves time and boosts productivity is the ability to review call history to return calls quickly, instead of going through contacts.
ShoreTel's communications framework reinforces productivity
The personal touch is one reason that Flynn Canada enjoys its enviable success and the ShoreTel UC system is helping the company stay close to its customers. Features such as hunt groups, presence, find-me, and personal call handling preferences enable receptionists to ensure that every call is answered.
"Our receptionists really appreciate ShoreTel's advanced features and capabilities," Mr. Ali said. "They comment that call handling functions like transferring and parking calls are very intuitive. ShoreTel's 'consult' feature lets them determine if someone can help on the call before transferring it. This makes our response a lot faster because the right person is handling it from the start."
Flynn Canada is the nation's industry leader in roofing services, and provides the complete spectrum of building envelope construction materials and services, as well as contracting services for the institutional, commercial, and industrial construction market. Based in Mississauga, Ontario, Flynn Canada is a platinum member of the country's 50 Best-Managed Companies, and has 16 offices across five time zones ready to serve customers and contractors in this highly time-sensitive business.