Key Highlight:  New Equipment & New Savings

Proximiti provides integrated communications services to a wide range of companies and distribution service companies find Proximiti’s integrated communications services reduces costs, improves efficiencies, and enhanced services, particularly messaging applications add real value to operations.

Proximiti consults with each client to assess its needs, recommends a range of solutions including equipment and network configurations, delivers voice and data services, integrates wireless services as part of the overall solution, installs and maintains services, and provides one simple easy to manage bill each month. Companies typically save 30% or more on combined services and obtain real productivity improvements from their improved services. This case study reviews a Central Florida based distribution company.

Key Facts:
• 35 employees
• 15 work at main office and warehouse
• Warehouse personnel rarely at desk, extensive use of paging
• sales personnel work in office and road with clients
• 10 delivery personnel in vans and trucks
• Customer base within 100 mile radius of warehouse
• Some international distribution and shipping
• Increasing use of Internet for orders, confirmation, and delivery notifications
• Data and voice spending for main office over $1,500 per month
• 10 year old phone system, parts and maintenance increasingly difficult to obtain
• Wireless spending for employees almost $4,000 per month
• Delivery scheduling critical part of meeting customer needs, expensive when deliveries cannot be made on time
• Company advantage in marketplace is quick turnaround times on customer orders

While the company’s existing telecom infrastructure adequately supported their business, management requested Proximiti to provide a free comprehensive proposal to determine if changes could reduce overall spending and improve current operating productivity. Proximiti met with the company’s office manager, the dispatcher, and several sales personnel to get a thorough understanding of their needs. It then provided a range of recommendations including the replacement of existing phone equipment, network configurations, and in particular, wireless integration options.

What Proximiti Provided and the Benefits

Proximiti recommended that the company replace its existing telecommunications gear and provided an analysis showing that the savings on the telecommunications spending more than covered the anticipated lease payment on the new gear, in fact, with additional savings of over 20%.

The new equipment provided important benefits:
• No on site premise gear had to be installed, the company simply plugged handsets into their LAN;
• The phones support paging;
• Employees can log in on any phone so warehouse personnel for example, can pick up a call at any phone;
• The system was set up to support wireless phones as extensions so the receptionist could instantly transfer an inbound sales inquiry to an on the road sales person as just one example;
• Sales personnel receiving calls on Proximiti provided cell phones while in the office can instantly transfer those calls to their desktop phone saving big minutes on wireless phone use (some companies report that 50% of wireless minutes are used within office environments;
• The spending controls provided as part of Proximiti wireless services allowed the company to issue cell phones to delivery personnel. Proximiti can limit calling to specific numbers and even time of day, although for this client, the overall spending caps were the only restrictions used;
• Proximiti provided robust voice mail, many of the phones used by the company had a small LCD display allowing users to select a name and press "call" to connect them to other work associates;
• Proximiti also provided its unique "Messaging Service" that was managed by the dispatcher to make automated calls to customers reminding them of delivery times. The service even allows for the recipient of the message to instantly connect to the dispatcher should a time or location of the delivery needed to be changed.

The service set greatly improved productivity for company associates and customers appreciated the instant connection to company contacts as phone tag declined substantially. The savings on monthly spending between wireless and main office voice and data services declined by over 30% and the company expects further benefits as associates fully utilize the capabilities of the product.

Quote from Office Manager:
"Proximiti delivered an exceptional system for our business that uniquely meets our needs. Our receptionist now helps the office staff with other functions, our dispatch operation is much more efficient, and the working relationship with Proximiti is first rate. The savings are material to our bottom line and our controller no longer winces when reviewing our wireless phone charges. Highly recommended."