Key Highlight: Flexibility for a Distributed Organization

Proximiti provides innovative services that greatly assist professional service firms serve their clients, work more closely with work associates, and supports the on the go business style of the business. This case study highlights a computer networking consulting firm that has over 200 small and mid sized business customers.

Key Facts:
• The company consists of 20 professionals with a small main office, two smaller branch offices, and 7 personnel that work from home offices when not on the road serving clients;
• Company personnel often collaborate on specific client needs so conference calling and e-mail contact is a critical communications need;
• The company receptionist handles day to day data processing needs for the company, too, and inbound calls are often answered by providing the caller with the cell phone number of the work associate;
• The company voice mail system is really too simple for many of their complex needs including forwarding to other work associates;
• Clients typically call their primary contact on his or her cell phone, even if they are in the office;
• Company telecom costs are a substantial part of operating expenses with reimbursements for wireless usage and home based Internet services for key employees.

Overview of Proximiti Solution
Proximiti consulted with the office manager and other key company employees about their total communications needs. It then recommended a range of solutions including replacing existing equipment at the main office, a new data network that saved substantially when compared to the current provider, and moving all of their voice traffic to the Internet (VOIP). The company used Blackberries and wireless phones on a multi-year contract with a leading wireless provider.

Proximiti installed its leading 3600 equipment solution at the corporate office and importantly, the only physical installation requirements were to plug Proximiti phones into their data network. Home based workers and executives that worked at the main office typically also took handsets to their home offices and again simply plugged those phones into their routers or directly into their cable modems. These phones serve as extensions so whether at home or in the office, all associates can reach another with simple four digit extension dialing.

The most important feature, however, is the integration with wireless phones. An employee extension is now both the desk phone and their cell phone and when a call is transferred or if an outside caller dials the direct number of an employee, the Proximiti 3600 immediately launches two calls. The first goes to the desk phone and the second to the wireless phone of the employee. If the employee answers his or her desk phone, the wireless leg of the call is immediately dropped. If the associate answers his or her cell phone and are in the office or their home office, they can walk back to their desk and simply by pressing the lit button on their desk phone can instantly transfer the call from their cell phone to the desk phone.

Proximiti’s voice mail solution is also very attractive to the company with the ability to forward messages to other extensions and the conferencing system is easy to use, includes powerful features, and saves substantially on communications costs. Overall voice savings are 50% with Proximiti’s unlimited local and long distance calling plans of $30 per month per line.

Overall, the company is saving substantially over 30% on their combined wireline and wireless service costs even factoring in the equipment lease on the new telephone equipment. Clients are pleased with the instant connections to key personnel, the receptionist is able to do more administrative work, and the same professional capabilities typically limited to office environments applies to home based workers as well.

Comment from President:
"We were not displeased with our communications services prior to going with Proximiti but it didn’t take our office manager long to show me the benefits of going with this approach. We have a distributed organization that spends much of their time with clients and traveling to different sites and we build our business through our talented personnel. The Proximiti solution really fits our needs and the wireless integration with the system is unmatched and addresses a very real need for our associates. The professionalism of the Proximiti team is first rate, the installation was right on schedule, and the interruptions to our day to day business minimal. Our office manager informs me that she can make any changes to our system almost instantly using the Proximiti web portal and our controller is pleased with the substantial cost savings. Recommended."