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Accounting For Staggered Roll-Out |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Thursday, 07 September 2006 |
A boutique Brisbane-based accountancy firm with multiple
locations opted to stagger the roll-out of Samsung Communications IP telephony solution
which allowed it to immediately replace its head office system before tackling branch offices.
Accountancy firm, Vincents, which has offices in Brisbane,
on the Gold Coast, in Sydney and Townsville firm commenced practice in 1989
with the aim of providing litigation support to the legal and insurance
sectors.
In 2001 the partnership introduced business services and insolvency
and reconstruction divisions to complement its forensic operations, growing the
firm significantly to 11 partners and over 40 staff.
"Because we have staff, clients and business partners in
four cities, an effective communications system is vital to us," said Practice
Manager, Christiane Lamb.
"Client communications, practice management, plus
internal and external administration are all reliant on telecommunications
capacity - it keeps us competitive."
But the Firm's aging Samsung PBX system only had a few
analogue lines and a fax line so Lamb became the driving force behind a move to
VoIP.
"Our brief was pretty specific," she says. "With our head
office administration based in Brisbane,
we wanted our remote staff to feel connected. And we wanted to be able to
provide clients with seamless access to our business. The firm needed the
communications network to be accessible to everybody in cost effective,
efficient and secure ways."
The Samsung Communications Centre in Brisbane
initially installed a Samsung OfficeServ500 with IPBX in the Brisbane head office during 2005. With capacity
for 600 extensions, the firm should be future proofed for some time yet.
Townsville and Sydney offices are bother equipped with the Samsung
OfficeServ100 using IP back to Brisbane
linking the three into a single entity, while the last piece of the new puzzle
was put together in the Gold Coast office.
An OfficeServ12 designed for branch office or single-site
applications was installed at their Gold Coast office. Supporting the same
functionality as the head office system, the OfficeServ12 allows all users to access
centralised functionality - from simple call forwarding and transfers to
advanced features such as operator services, voice mail, auto attendant and
automatic call distribution.
Now all the sites are networked together so that internal
calls are carried over Vincent's virtual private network (VPN) so are effectively
free except for data costs across the IP network.
"On Samsung's recommendation, we allowed for the possibility
of future expansion by way of introducing other remote sites such as our Gold
Coast office which was set up 12 months later than our other two sites. And as
staff numbers increase, we have capabilities within the system for extension
cards," said Lamb.
"We can pick up the phone and dial an extension to speak to
staff in our remote offices, our reception can handle the overflow of calls
made to our other offices and our computer network is able to be accessed from
our remote offices via the same link in a speedy and secure way," she said.
"It has provided a significant saving in communication,
administrative and additional software costs which will amount to thousands of
dollars per year."
"There is no doubt that the ability of our staff in any
location to, at the touch of a button, contact any other staff member no matter
where they are has made everyone feel part of the same team. Clients are also
better served as no matter where they are calling from, they can be transferred
within the link, to the person most able to help them at no additional cost."
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