The VoIP configured hardware and SIP Integrator is Harrisontech. The VoIP service provider is Engin, providing multiple direct in-dial accounts and using a Business 50 Plan as the main outbound account to achieve benefit of savings. The VoIP equipment is high business grade quality supplied by Harrisontech.

The Case Study participant:
Gold Coast Visitor Centre and InfoMaps is a tourism marketing and sales company based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, employing 30 people and growing. The company’s tourism services cover the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Cairns, Port Douglas, the Whitsundays and Byron Bay.

The company allows visitors to research, plan and book activities to make the most of their visits to some of Australia’s premier tourist destinations.

Location:
Gold Coast based Gold Coast Visitor Centre and InfoMaps provides a local information and sales centre in all its destinations.

Case:
Gold Coast Visitor Centre and InfoMaps needed to move premises to cater for their impressive growth, they operated a traditional ISDN on-ramp with a major Telco. This was perfect timing to investigate communication methods and solutions, hence assess VoIP and its ability. It was essential that any provider could cater to its local points of presence.

Managing Director John Redpath explains, “We are like a local media player, so when people call us, they need to feel that they are making a call to someone who knows the area. This means they have to be able to dial a local access number and we need to be able to identify where they are calling from to cater to their needs.

We had been looking at the marketplace for two years, watching the growth of new technologies such as broadband telephony, as we really didn’t want to get into a traditional hardware lease solution. The development of new technology has been rapid and the functions and costs of VoIP became a compelling argument.

Solution:
We previously had our own hardware on Telstra lines, and wanted to deploy a solution that would not have us locked in to a particular provider. Engin offered us such a solution, where it was an open, user pays approach that made economic sense, although I have elected to maintain some Telstra infrastructure due to advice from Harrisontech.

We looked at other broadband telephony companies but Engin really did lead the pack, they have the best technology and enjoy that first to market advantage. Engin put us in touch with their implementation partner Harrisontech who impressed us with their knowledge and obviously kept up to date on the latest and greatest. They designed a configuration that would cater to our unique needs and we were comfortable that the system would deliver the functionality we required.

Operation:
The new system is a huge technological lift for our company, it has delivered many new functions into our call centre, and we are still developing it. Functions such as call forwarding, messaging and line ID help us run our business more efficiently as we effectively operate as 5 different business units across the single call centre. Voicemail delivery direct to our email is especially helpful and allows us to better service our customers.

There is no difference in call quality between the Engin Broadband service and our old Telstra lines, the sound is loud and clear. We do operate a high quality Internet service on an uncontended channel that ensures the service is consistent.

Benefits:
We are saving upwards of 60 per cent on our phone bills which make a huge difference to the bottom line of our business. The savings are actually closer to 70 per cent on call savings, but we have redundant traditional lines in place to ensure business continuity in case of our internet connection going down.

Final Assessment:
We have been very impressed with the Harrisontech and the Engin solution and their approach to doing business from day one. They take a big business philosophy to small businesses, being attentive and professional, and make the experience of doing business with them enjoyable. If I call Engin I know I will get through to someone who will help with genuine care and concern".

The Managing Director Andrew Harrison of Harrisontech said: - "The integration into Gold Coast Visitor Centre and InfoMaps was an enjoyable experience. John Redpath did his homework before we came along and knew exactly what was required. Adam Broadbent - Engin State Account Manager and John Dick - Engin Senior Sales Manager have both been impressively supportive throughout the entire integration process to ensure the Engin product was delivered in the best manner possible".

If you are interested in a business telephone system from one handset to many or simply just integrating VoIP into your business please call Harrisontech 1300 66 85 85 or contact us by clicking here.