In the fast-paced world of business, communication is the lifeline that connects companies with their customers, partners, and employees. For Altronics Distributors Pty Ltd (‘Altronics’), a Perth-based company with 11 retail outlets nationally and over 10,000 products available in-store or online, delivering top-notch customer service was always a priority. However, their existing telephony system faced reliability issues and couldn’t meet the demands of a rapidly expanding business.
Altronics partnership with PepNet Technologies and RingCentral revolutionised their communication, ensuring business continuity, reducing costs, and simplifying operations.
Altronics: A Customer-Centric Business
For over 40 years, Altronics has been a prominent supplier of electronic components, serving customers both in Australia and globally. With their commitment to product quality, service, and support, Altronics has become a respected name in the distribution, retail, and manufacturing industry.
Pierre Delpech, System Administrator at Altronics, expressed the company’s commitment to personalised customer service, with a preference for phone and email communication. Their traveling sales representatives frequently meet with customers in person, making effective communication a core aspect of their operations.
Challenges with the Existing Telephony System
Altronics had already migrated from on-premise PABX equipment to Mitel’s MiCloud Connect cloud business communications service, but experienced reliability issues with outages under Mitel’s ‘four 9s’ service level agreement (99.99% SLA). Traveling staff were also not able to effectively use the mobile app for softphone functionality when on the road.
Due to limitations with the telephony platform and the complexity of Altronics’ operations (particularly due to dual headquarters in Perth and Sydney and time zone differences across the country) Altronics was managing more than 40 hunt groups in the system.
The Transformation: Partnering with PepNet Technologies and RingCentral
To address these challenges, Altronics turned to Perth-based RingCentral Certified Delivery Partner, PepNet Technologies. PepNet recommended a migration strategy to RingCentral’s unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) solution, which promised to streamline their communication and resolve their existing issues.
Pierre Delpech commended PepNet for their role in the migration process, stating that they “took all the stress away” from the Altronics team. The migration was accomplished in about a week, significantly reducing the time to deploy and minimising user impact.
Reduced cost and increased speed of migration
RingCentral’s unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) solution was recommended as Altronics’ ideal replacement for MiCloud Connect.
In deciding to migrate to RingCentral, one of the key benefits for Altronics was the ability to keep its existing Mitel handsets. RingCentral is Mitel’s exclusive UCaaS partner globally and most of the current Mitel phones have been certified to work with RingCentral’s Message Video Phone (MVP) platform.
In retaining its existing phones, Altronics reduced the overall cost of migration, and no additional user training was required for new handsets. The hardware compatibility also assisted the speed of deployment. Altronics’ 88 handsets nationally were provisioned on the new RingCentral platform in under four hours.
Powerful mobile app
The RingCentral softphone app was deployed to users’ smartphones, ensuring business continuity even in cases of internet or network connectivity issues. Traveling staff, in particular, benefited greatly from this feature, as it allowed them to easily stay connected to the business without additional data plans or international roaming.
The ease of management and operational simplicity
RingCentral’s platform led to a significant reduction in the number of hunt groups configured, improving call flow efficiency. The platform’s advanced features, such as detailed call reporting and analytics, further enhanced Altronics’ communication capabilities.
Since deployment, Altronics has enjoyed a secure, highly available and high-quality voice service thanks to RingCentral’s five 9s (99.999%) SLA, which equates to less than 78 seconds of downtime per quarter. Altronics is more easily managing its own environment with RingCentral’s administration portal, and now has access to advanced call reporting and analytics across the environment.
Future Endeavors
While Altronics currently uses RingCentral for voice communications, they are exploring the use of video for internal meetings to enhance collaboration and reduce geographical barriers across their operation.
Additionally, Altronics is advocating for more advanced ‘do not disturb’ (DND) capabilities within the RingCentral platform. They hope to enable automatic call diversions to other queues if members of the original hunt group are unavailable or set to DND. Moreover, they aim to provide users with the
flexibility to set different rules for their desk phone and mobile app, ensuring calls to specific queues do not disturb them when they are out of the office or unavailable.
The successful partnership between Altronics, PepNet Technologies, and RingCentral has transformed Altronics’ communication, providing a reliable, high-quality, and cost-effective solution that aligns with their customer-centric approach. As Altronics continues to grow and adapt to changing communication needs, the future looks promising with RingCentral’s innovative solutions and a dedicated partner in PepNet Technologies.
Read More (HERE) or get in touch today to discuss how PepNet and RingCentral can help you.
