Two Sydney SMBs save $9000 per year

Moving on training and Dolomites Ski Tours, two small businesses based in Mona Vale in Sydney’s northern beaches have been victims of their own success.
Following steep growth, both businesses – owned and operated by local entrepreneur Greg Edwards – found themselves in need of an efficient, reliable and integrated voice and data network.

“We were looking for a way of best rationalising all of our telecommunications, we had different phone numbers for different businesses; it was a mess,” said Edwards.

He approached Linksys to discuss the benefits of the Linksys Voice System (LVS).

“The Linksys hardware just seemed to be the best way to do it. We knew if we went for Linksys, we would dramatically reduce our costs. We are saving about $9000 a year where we were spending $12,000 a year on calls,” he added.

According to Edwards, not only did Linksys’ LVS save his businesses money, but also enhanced customer service capabilities.

“The outdated analogue system used prior to Linksys made it impossible to differentiate which calls were for what business and also made it difficult to direct calls to the right person.

“This systems gives us control over where calls go, who takes them and even with our remote offices, we can route calls wherever we want. Depending on the call, we can direct it to a specific handset allocated to a business.”.

Even though Edwards’ businesses involve plenty of overseas travel, he said the system helps him to keep sales coming in even when he’s not there.
“The nature of one of our businesses means that we are doing a great deal of overseas travel – about four months a year,” Edwards said.
“With Linksys, you can set the system up so that even if there is no one in the office, and someone tries to call – an email will be sent to my computer in Italy or overseas. The email will have a .wav file attached to it so that I can actually hear those voice messages!”

The solution

Linksys value-added reseller, Go Systems, provided and installed a multi-line business service to deliver on the customer’s needs. The answer for Greg Edwards was a hosted PBX platform utilising Linksys hardware, and powered by service provider Comvergence.

What attracted Edwards to the LVS were the new Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) phone solutions that provided high quality and multiple features designed specifically for small businesses.
Go Systems recommended and installed an integrated VoIP system that includes the AG300 Linksys Modem/Router, the SRW208P 8-Port 100Mb/s Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) LAN switch, one Linksys SPA3102 PSTN to VoIP converter, SPA942 VoIP handsets and 12 digital headsets.

Go Systems’ Robert Ek said: “Linksys’ benefits include ease of implementation, technical support and the lack of a need for power or cables due to the Power-over-Ethernet-based phones and switch”.

Ek said the system is ideal for multiple small businesses that will then have the luxury of converging transactions, communications
and data onto one network to improve information flow, boost profitability and reduce operational costs.

“But the expense of such a solution has kept it out of the reach of many smaller businesses – until now,” he said.

“This enables growing businesses to deliver telephones, data networking, applications and the Internet through one high-speed connection, from one provider,” he added.

The future for small business

Comvergence’s Brian Michaels explained that since the new system has been installed the two businesses now have a reliable, business-grade telephony service and the company saves on call costs, particularly interstate and international call costs.

“Effectively Comvergence has enabled both Moving on Training and Dolomite Ski Tours to port the old analogue PSTN number to our services and provide all the smart switching to work from multiple offices on the same network with free calls between each other.

“What you also have is an after-hours night switch with a personalised menu and a dedicated DSL voice circuit carries all the voice traffic.”

In terms of the potential impact of this Linksys hardware to small businesses, Michaels believes that the positive impact is enormous and its effect still in its infancy.

“Linksys is servicing small business better than any politician or government ever could. With this Linksys hardware, essentially you can now easily work from home or other offices on different days of the week and people can still call you via reception or your main number.

“In addition to this, there is a comprehensive Auto Attendant and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that allows you to have multiple levels, queues and customised on-hold announcements,” he added.

“And the good thing for us is that Linksys and Cisco have good brand recognition, and a good product roadmap with active product development and potential,” he said.

“We know we are investing in products that are going to be around for a while. It’s also a complete solution – we don’t have to source products and services from different vendors.”