QLD resort discovers VoIP

AFTER DISCOVERING 3664 calls were missed over a three-month period, Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort, located off the Brisbane coast, decided it was time to trade in its 20-year-old phone system for an IP telephony system.

Previously, the resort, where guests can handfeed a pod of wild bottlenose dolphins, had operated a simple telephone key system that could not transfer calls and had no reporting or call centre functionality. Tangalooma recognised it needed to upgrade its communications infrastructure to introduce a telephony system that was feature-rich, future proof, scaleable and affordable in the competitive tourism and hospitality industry.

Geoff Breene, Tangalooma’s administration, finance and IT director said the resort was forced to “face the music” when its Fujitsu/Commander phone system, implemented in 1987 was no longer able to handle the growing popularity of the resort.

“Back then our phone system was leading edge. But through the years we had trouble getting support for it. As we grew we ran out of handsets and had to mix and match. In the end our technical people couldn’t do anything with it,” he said.

According to Breene, the resort operates on two locations — the head office is located in Brisbane and the resort is located on
Moreton Island.

“At the time we were in the process of moving the head office to the mainland because the actual office was becoming too small and couldn’t accommodate our growth. We were actually going to wait until we moved to implement a new phone system,” said Breene.

Not according to plan
However, things didn’t turn out as Tangalooma had planned — when the resort undertook an audit it discovered it was losing more than 3000 phone calls, translating to potentially lost revenue. Breene then had the ammunition he needed to convince the heads of the resort that a phone system was needed before the move to a new location.

According to Breene, he had been looking into phone systems for quite a while for the resort and had investigated a few systems.

Tangalooma was in business with its previous phone people for about 15 years. The resort turned to these guys a few years after it had bought the Fujitsu phone system and Telstra had stopped supplying support for it.

“The reseller we were working with showed us a NEC PABX that was a non-VoIP system and I didn’t see the value in it,” he said.

Breene had been researching VoIP phone systems for around eight years and knew the value of having such a system, especially when it came time to moving offices.

Money not the issue
Telstra Business Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telstra and an Avaya Gold business partner, had approached Tangalooma with an Avaya IP telephony system. Two things convinced Breene of the value in the technology.

“Price wasn’t an issue, we did some haggling over it. The call centre feature Avaya offered was fundamentally better. The ability to provide one phone number for the office on the mainland and the resort was the other,” said Breene.

He also said this was one of the most significant technological innovations that Tangalooma had ever undertaken.

“Avaya and Telstra were
instrumental in its success at every stage – evaluation, implementation and support,” said Breene. “We can now allocate calls to the person who has most expertise in the relevant area. We’re expecting that this will shorten customer time on the phone and help our staff to manage the calls more effectively, not to mention stopping the thousands of missed calls, potentially creating a rapid ROI by improving our bottom line.”

For the call centre, it means that operators will have absolute control of all incoming calls into the centre, how they queue, what the caller hears, who the calls should go to and call handling option can be chosen to improve Tangalooma’s customer service, said Breene.

Technical needs
Malcolm Flanagan, managing director at Telstra Business Systems said Tangalooma invested in an Avaya Communications Manager IP telephony solution with a G700 gateway and S8300 server with voicemail and deluxe call centre package.

The new IP 9620 handsets have one-touch access to key features and high fidelity audio, resulting in improved sound quality and making conference calls and meetings more effective by requiring less reiteration.

As a popular holiday destination, Tangalooma is focused on delivering the most exceptional customer experiences and upgrading its communications system is a positive step for this world-class resort, Flanagan said.

Telstra installed 50 of the latest Avaya IP handsets and an Avaya Call Centre Suite at Tangalooma Resort, with an option to extend the network across Tangalooma’s entire resort and 300-room complex. Upgrading its contact centre with Avaya’s IP handsets and Call Centre Suite has resulted in a significant improvement in satisfaction for both customers and staff.

“Tangalooma needed a virtual IP location for its phone calls in order to solve a lot of the issues that it had. Its disparate locations required Tangalooma to get a contact call centre with a virtual operative branch operating off the back of Telstra’s WAN,” said Flanagan.

Smooth operator
Flanagan said the project went fairly smoothly, with around eight weeks taken by Telstra Business Systems team to gather Tangalooma’s requirements for installing the Avaya system.

“It all went pretty smoothly. The only thing that caused any momentary concern was Avaya didn’t hold the stock required for the implementation. It had to send for the products from the US. At the time Avaya was also relocating its warehouses, but we got what we needed,” said Flanagan.

Breene said the project required up to five people from Telstra’s side and three people from Tangalooma.

“I had just gotten a new PA and took her on board to help co-ordinate the project as it was during one of our busiest periods — Christmas,” he said.
Flanagan said it was fortunate that the implementation was taking place in the mainland office, where there was minimal disruption for staff members.

“Our biggest challenge was ensuring the quality of service we provide to the customer. We felt we had the reasonable products to be able to do this for the Tangalooma project,” said Flanagan.

Keeping the customer happy
Flanagan said the team at Telstra Business Systems followed a basic methodology of identifying the requirements needed by the end-user; archtyping the solution; making sure it fit with the customer’s requirements; getting sign-off for equipment ordinance; then it would start to co-ordinate with the customer on making sure the resources and the network are up to scratch; and then ensuring the technology is ready for implementation.

For Breene, Tangalooma now has the latest IP telephone system which has created a platform that will give the opportunity to roll out IP telephony across the entire resort.

“It has improved the customer service experience considerably for holiday makers who expect to receive holiday information quickly and efficiently,” said Breene.

According to Flanagan, more organisations such as Tangalooma are recognising the advantages of having IP telephony technology.

“IP telephony provides more than just voice connectivity at reduced cost. It also acts as a foundation that is breaking down barriers between different forms of communication,” he said.

Organisations with disparate locations need to be able to
provide their customers with centralised contact information to avoid confusion.

“This will shorten customer time on the phone and help our staff manage calls more effectively.”