"The greatest advantage we have as a result of this solution is control.  With the ability to roll out the phone system to all our stores nationwide, we benefit from a very healthy ROI."  Ron Pane, IS Support Manager.

Challenge

Twenty years after its founding, Angus & Robertson is proudly Australian owned and Australia's largest bookseller. There are company owned and franchised bookstores situated in every state and mainland territory of Australia; with more than 170 bookstores Angus & Robertson is more than twice the size of its nearest competitor. The Angus & Robertson name has a proud and long heritage in bookselling and Australian literature, and is one of the most recognised retail brands in the country.

Using IT as a strong performance lever has helped Angus & Robertson to long term business success but telecommunications lagged behind IT in investment and benefit to the business. Many stores had many more phone lines than staff and the monthly telecommunications bill for calls between stores and head office was a major expense. Stores had common IT but not common telephony so training was an issue. Customers calling in were left holding while front desk staff served patrons in the store.

IT Environment

Angus & Robertson has a large Microsoft and SAP environment with a wide area network to all stores provided by AAPT.

Solution

Generation-e implemented a 3Com VCX advanced telephony solution for head office and stores nationally. The fully redundant design delivered a standard solution to all sites that achieves a return on investment immediately through line rationalisation and call cost reductions. Angus & Robertson staff can easily self manage their entire telephony environment for all 120+ store locations from a single central management system.

Business Impact

Bottom line financial benefits are immediate as the monthly savings far outweigh the cost of the system. IT can self manage their system allowing rapid action to business requests with no ongoing charges.