Management tool, Voice Control helped to cut costs and maximise efficiency
“Volume Control gives us visibility and security like never before. Now we can effectively
monitor and control excessive internal usage of voice calls. It also enables us to quickly
identify and block rogue international calls associated with PABX hacking that could potentially
cost the organisation millions of dollars.”
Sandra Woodcock,
Personnel Manager, Sharp Corporation
Overview
With a long history of creating breakthrough electrical goods, Sharp Corporation lives
up to its name thanks to a quality product range and astute business sense. Being sharp –
and smart – about operational issues has helped secure the brand's longevity in the market.
One of these issues is telecommunications. With offices throughout Asia Pacific, Sharp
faced costly monthly bills resulting from high levels of inter-office communication. Instead
of restricting this valuable dialogue between employees – which helps Sharp stay ahead of
its competitors – the company instead sought a smart new telecommunications solution.
Sharp chose Macquarie Telecom as its new provider, along with its voice management tool,
Volume Control. In the 12 months since switching to Macquarie Telecom, Sharp has enjoyed a
20 per cent saving on fixed voice costs and has protected itself from costly security breaches
such as PABX hacking.
The challenge
Sharp Corporation, headquartered in Sydney, talks the talk. Between employees, that is.
With a large fleet of mobile sales representatives, a parent company in Japan, and offices
throughout the Asia Pacific region, Sharp employees are in constant dialogue.
“We received large monthly bills from our previous provider, yet we had little recourse
to make sense of these bills or, more importantly, how to generate savings and appoint accountability
for the cost blow-outs,” said Sandra Woodcock, Personnel Manager for Sharp Corporation.
“With voice calls playing such a significant role in our business, it was time to re-evaluate
the solution we had in place.”
With the help of telecommunications consultants, Sharp assessed its voice strategy and
identified key areas for improvement, including:
- Cost savings for fixed calls
- Ongoing monitoring and reporting, instead of retrospective reports
- Online access to real-time reports
- Improved account management
This represented a clear departure from the decade-old solution that had been in place
at Sharp, which offered no visibility into call paths or the cause of cost blow outs.
“We were trying to work with reports that were retrospective, DOS based and difficult to
extract information from. It didn't help that there was no support or account management backing
up these reports,” said Ms Woodcock.
The electrical giant sought personalised service and cost-effective voice solutions, and
found them at Macquarie Telecom.
The solution
Macquarie Telecom is a specialist telecommunications provider. It delivers a range of voice,
mobile, data, dedicated hosting and managed security services specifically to the business
and government market.
This focus was what Sharp was looking for – a telco committed to their specific business
needs.
Sharp appointed Macquarie Telecom to take over its local and long distance voice calls,
and also purchased the Macquarie Telecom Volume Control management tool as a way of better
managing call usage. The solution included dedicated account management to help Sharp interpret
reports generated by Volume Control and get more out of their PABX system.
Volume Control is a call management tool that offers total cost control for business telephony.
It analyses call patterns and highlights areas of variance or concern.
Volume Control includes:
- Easy to read monthly reports
- Detailed reports on destinations and origins
- Web-based alerts sent via SMS or email when call volumes are excessive or unusual
With Volume Control, Sharp can now identify unusual call activity, track international
calls and monitor whether these are made for valid business reasons or staff using company
resources for personal use.
Volume Control can also provide alerts to potential security breaches such as PABX hacking.
“Volume Control gives us visibility and security like never before. Now we can effectively
monitor and control excessive internal usage of voice calls. It also enables us to quickly
identify and block rogue international calls associated with PABX hacking that could potentially
cost the organisation millions of dollars.”
The results
“From the first bill, we gained a 20 per cent reduction in call costs, and the continued
account management bodes well for further savings in the future,” said Ms Woodcock.
“We experienced minimal disruption when we switched providers, and the on-site Macquarie
Telecom representative was professional and easy to work with at all times during the transition.”
Macquarie Telecom has made a strong impact on Sharp's telecommunications strategy. With
decreased costs and improved reporting capabilities, Sharp now has greater visibility into
its voice calls.
With clear insight into such a significant component of business spend, the company is
looking sharp.
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