Multinational Manufacturer Embraces Cloud Telecommunications Services

A manufacturer that has been operating for more than 100 years needed to modernize its legacy telecommunications system. The change provided the company with more functionality, simpler deployment, reduced costs, and improved communication.

The global leader in labeling and packaging materials production has three operating units with 30,000 employees working in several hundred locations in more than 50 countries on six continents. Through the years, the client built out its network with a variety of providers and solutions to support its growing needs. These systems ranged in age from five to 30 years resulting in a disparate legacy environment that created challenges in management, support, and cost.

Embracing the Cloud

The company wanted to consolidate and transform its legacy services and gain more efficiencies of scale. In addition, the manufacturer wanted to migrate to a cloud-based solution and simplify system maintenance. They turned to LinkSource, a technology consulting advisor, with these key objectives:

• Reduce the level of deployment effort
• Improve enterprise telephony functionality
• Lower infrastructure dependencies at the site level
• Better support mobile workers
• Integrate with collaboration platforms and customer relationship management (CRM) tools
• Form a migration path to session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking, cloud IP telephony, and related services

Gaining Options

Managing telecommunication evaluations can be costly and time consuming, but we are adaptable and work as our clients do. We deliver a full range of services, including three different ways of managing such projects:

• Traditional, paper-based management
• Using client’s existing RFP software
• Using our proprietary DirectRFP® online software

A Multi-Step Process

Given the company’s global nature and complex system requirements, we broke the evaluation down into stages. The manufacturer and LinkSource contacted more than 14 leading hosted telephony and UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) vendors, who provided information about their services. We then conducted detailed follow-up discussions with a handful of companies. Eventually, two vendors prepared pilot projects, and our client chose RingCentral, a leading provider of global enterprise cloud communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions, as the provider.

At the time, cloud telecommunications services were just beginning to gain market traction. There was some risk, given the technology’s nascent stage and the client’s globally dispersed infrastructure. So, we negotiated a contract with competitive pricing and favorable terms that provided the flexibility the client required.

In the past few years, the manufacturer has been actively rolling the system out to its locations around the world and empowering its workforce with a new, robust, cloud-based telephony solution. More than 20,000 seats have switched to the new services. LinkSource managed the vendor relationships throughout the implementation and continue to coordinate all changes.

Impressive Results

The labeling and packaging materials producer benefitted from the upgrade.

• The company’s call centers are now better able to serve customers, and agents have more information at their fingertips to answer inquiries. The system is more intuitive, so agents spend less time searching for information and more time analyzing it. The manufacturer integrated its different groups more cohesively, giving them more visibility into company and customer information.  
• The client operates one of RingCentral’s largest deployments. The manufacturer sits on RingCentral’s user advisory board and has a great deal of input into the vendor’s strategy and product roadmap.
• From a tactical point of view, the supplier dramatically simplified its systems maintenance requirements. They no longer need to troubleshoot problem hardware, and RingCentral manages all of the systems. Upgrades become available to all of the manufacturer’s users with the click of a button, and they avoid the capital expense that comes with premises-based solutions.
• With everyone working from the same platform, communication within the organization improved; connecting with coworkers became much simpler, and information flows much faster.

In essence, the industry leader successfully migrated from a 20th century communication system to a 21St century one, allowing them to better respond to today’s global competitive pressure. 

Why Choose LinkSource?

We believe that migrating to new technologies should be a seamless and simple experience. That’s why we’ll work with you to identify your unique business requirements and advise you on secure, reliable, cost-effective solutions to simplify your technology experience.

As recognized technology advisors in telecom, cloud, and cyber security, our team of experts successfully manages millions in annual client revenue for some of the most prominent global brands, and we’re ready to do the same for your business.