Case Study: M2
About M2 M2 sells an extensive variety of
print solutions. Founded in 1992, the
company now boasts five sites in Manchester,
London, Glasgow, Wakefield and Trafford, and
has an annual turnover of £35 million.
Originally, the company’s communications
infrastructure was based across four
separate systems, with each site operating
independently from the next. The eldest
system was nearly 15 years old and
maintenance costs were increasing. There was
a mixture of analogue and digital lines, and
just 10 VoIP telephones across the entire
business. The solution was causing a number
of problems, from administration to
invoicing and maintenance. The age of the
system meant it was also limited in terms of
what it could do. It wasn’t capable of UC,
it had no proper voicemail, no SIP, and it
required more and more support. In
Manchester, the location of the main contact
centre, the system was nearing its capacity
of 120 extensions. Just 16 more lines would
have cost M2 close to £1,000. Add to this a
series of power outages in Manchester and
Glasgow, the worst of which saw the main
call centre out of action for two days, and
it’s easy to see why M2 started looking for
an upgrade. Time for a change. Two and a
half years ago, M2 opened up its Wakefield
office, installing a new ShoreTel solution
from Atlas Support Communications in the
premises. This was a separate system from
the other four sites, but M2 was able to
transfer telecoms across MPLS. While the new
ShoreTel system offered numerous benefits to
the business, the old ones were becoming
extremely difficult to manage. Craig Battel,
M2’s Infrastructure Manager, tells the
story: “We had separate maintenance
contracts for all the hardware, and our
oldest one was close to 15 years old. It was
all a bit of a mess, with analogue lines
mixed in with digital lines, and none of
them working effectively. We had just 10
VoIP phones across the entire company. “The
system’s age meant it wasn’t capable of UC.
It had no proper voicemail, it was a
nightmare to manage, and had massive support
contracts scattered here and there. It also
wasn’t capable of SIP, and it terms of
operation, each phone had to have its own
physical port on the system.” Improvements
in customer service. The quality of the
phone system left much to be desired from a
manageability point of view, but M2 hadn’t
realised the impact it was having on callers
and customer service levels. Craig says: “We
didn’t think the old system had impacted our
customer service at the time, but since
getting the new system our call waiting
times have massively dropped. Less people
than ever before are complaining about being
stuck on hold and never coming off, for
example. And users seem to be using it more
efficiently, making call centre wrap-up
times shorter so agents can speak to more
customers.” Compelling change. M2 knew they
required a new system but the real turning
point was when they witnessed a series of
outages across their Manchester and Glasgow
sites. Craig says: “An outage in our main
office in Manchester, where our contact
centre is, saw the system go down for two
days. Obviously, this was not good and it
impacted our customer service levels. We
then had the same power issues in Glasgow.
It took a week to replace the power supplies
and cost us a fortune.” Choosing the new
system. M2 came to Atlas Support with
relatively low expectations for what they
needed their new solution to do. They simply
wanted to maximise the functionality of the
old system as a minimum – essentially
gaining a reliable solution with handsets
that could dial out. What they got truly
exceeded their expectations. The print
solutions company decided on a feature-rich
system with voicemail and instant messaging.
M2 evaluated four different systems,
including the ShoreTel solution they’d
already chosen for the new Wakefield site.
They looked at three partners and selected
Atlas Support based on experience and
technical skill. “We’d used Atlas Support
before so we knew their support was bob on,”
says Craig. “Choosing ShoreTel from Atlas
Support the cost was cheaper than the other
prospective partners. We knew, having
already been through deployment at the
Wakefield site, that Atlas Support would
properly manage the project. In terms of
support, their engineers are very
knowledgeable. If there are any issues we
simply log a support call and they get back
to us within the same day at least.” For
ease of deployment, M2 selected a VoIP
solution, which can be managed from a web
portal. “This makes management easier,” says
Craig, who is responsible for the running of
the system. “I’m able to make changes direct
from users’ PCs when I’m sat at their desks,
rather than repeatedly coming back to my own
computer like when we were using the old
Samsung software.” Supporting a mobile
workforce. One additional requirement came
from M2’s CEO, John Taylor, who wanted to
bring the 60 field-based engineers closer to
the business. The company made the decision
to take the Shoretel mobility client too. So
now remote engineers can have a desk
extension on their mobile, making them a
central part of the M2 team. The project.
The new phone system project started at the
beginning of November 2014 and was completed
by the 17th December. Craig says: “Atlas
Support were brilliant because this was
relatively short notice for quite a large
project. Even before the financials had been
agreed but the project had been signed off,
Atlas Support were planning it and having
deployment meetings. From a project point of
view they were brilliant. The guys they sent
in were really knowledgeable.” Saving time
and money. M2 has witnessed both operational
and time savings as a direct result of their
new solution. Getting new users set up on
the old phone system was a difficult and
manual process. By contrast, adding extra
users and handsets to the new system is
extremely straightforward, so scaling the
solution to cater for business growth is
simple. Additionally, the new ShoreTel
system has its own contact software that
runs on PCs, so the business runs much more
smoothly. M2 teams no longer have to
tediously update spreadsheets with telephone
and extension numbers. Employees just click
enter on the on-screen contact directory to
make a call, which improves productivity.
For further information on how a new phone
system could benefit your business and help
save costs, just ask Atlas Support for a
free demonstration.
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