The problem
SBL have historically utilised a traditional PBX telephony infrastructure using an Alcatel solution. However, the business recognised that the functionality it provided was limited and that the reporting was both generic and time consuming. SBL has a desire to actively encourage greater collaboration internally and also with their client base and partners. Given their York-based head office location and the drive for greater communication, there was an increasing necessity for their sales teams to attend meetings, which resulted in significant travel, its associated costs and lost productivity because of travel time.
The benefits
SBL have already experienced a wide range of benefits from the roll-out of Microsoft Lync 2013.
• The reporting from the implementation of the Microsoft Lync 2013 solution far outweighs the generic and time consuming reports that were available with the legacy systems.
• Ability to gain analysis and management information to identify improved efficiencies, and identify potential areas for further improvement.
• Lync 2013 has given SBL a unified platform for communications where employees have greater accessibility to their colleagues. The use of the Lync mobile application for both Android and IOS has assisted this further. SBL’s clients are also able to access an improved level of communication and support.
• SBL employees now have access to information in a faster, simpler and more effective way making them more agile. The feature of video conferencing has already seen benefits and SBL expect the use of this particular feature to increase over time, saving travel time and costs and they are looking for it to be utilised not just internally, but for client meetings as well.
