H&J Smith is a privately owned department store group in New Zealand, with stores across the south of the country in Invercargill, Gore and Queenstown.
With a rich history stemming back to the beginning of the 20th century, the company has grown to become one of the largest of its kind in New Zealand. Established in 1900 as a drapery store, their commitment to serving the local communities with the highest standards of customer care has seen their stores expanded to offer products across a wide range of departments, including fashion, beauty and home furnishings.
The company’s flagship store, located in Invercargill, resides in over 12,000sqm of retail space and is one of the largest stores in New Zealand.
What’s more, they operate several independent brands including women’s fashion, outdoor and adventure, Paper Plus and Take Note franchises.
Their Needs
As a company renowned for its progressiveness as well as its customer service, its outdated phone system was no longer sufficient to support these aspects. Their software and hardware support had expired, old equipment was proving expensive to maintain, and the total cost of the Nortel system including networks and call plans was approximately $170,000 per year.
With over 200 employees, multiple locations and a steadily growing business, the team at H&J Smith were in desperate need of a more modern VoIP solution that could supply them with additional features at a lower cost.
IT and Operations Manager Morris Gilbertson considered alternative solutions from their existing supplier but found they were unable to match the functionality and cost savings that 3CX could provide.
How We Helped
Focus is a 3CX Gold Partner and working with H&J Smith to quickly and easily deploy their 64SC Pro license for over 200 extensions without any disruption to the business.
They were able to utilise their existing network infrastructure for further cost savings and more pain-free installation.
The Results
The company is now enjoying:
- Interoffice connectivity with common systems across all stores
- Significant cost reductions on monthly telco bills
- Increased staff productivity through the extension to extension dialling and video conferencing
- Positive impact on organisational efficiency through the use of call centre functionality and also the smartphone and web apps.
- Employees adjusting quickly to the new system without issue
H&J Smith expects that the phone system will pay for itself within 2 years due to reduced annual costs. Should they need to expand the phone system, they can easily do so at no further cost for unlimited extensions.
“3CX system has delivered a cost-effective and multi-functional communication system replacing existing legacy phone systems across all stores fully integrated into our existing networks.
The system provides an extensive range of communication services, is highly functional, easy for our team to operate, reliable and provides a high level of service and support”, says Morris.
Summary
H&J Smith is a privately owned department store group in New Zealand, with stores across the south of the country in Invercargill, Gore and Queenstown. Their outdated phone system was no longer sufficient to support the business needs and provide good customer services. They worked with Focus to implement the 3CX phone system across the business and are pleased with the results, with more features and less cost.
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