ESI Technologies Established in 1919, ESI Technologies is a leading supplier of process equipment and engineering solutions for the biotech, pharmaceutical, chemical, food and energy industries in Ireland, UK and Benelux. It has plants in Cork and Cwmbran. www.esitechgroup.com Challenges With pharmaceutical and biotech industries in Ireland growing strongly, and customers expecting greater speed and efficiency from suppliers, ESI Technologies was keen to increase the flexibility and responsiveness of its systems. Alan Venner, IT Business Unit Leader at ESI Technologies, says: “Customers were increasingly using multiple online and mobile communication channels to contact us, and our existing hard-wired PBX phone system seemed inflexible and restrictive by comparison.” As part of a wider upgrade to its computer systems, which included switching to cloud-based platforms, ESI Technologies decided to review its phone system and explore VoIP options. Alan explains: “Everything was up for grabs from an IT perspective. We looked at what sister companies were doing within the group and explored a number of suppliers. We knew about LogMeIn because we were already using GoToMeeting, so we set up a call to find out more about its cloud-based phone system, GoToConnect.” Solution Following an initial proposal, LogMeIn introduced ESI Technologies to its local specialist unified communications and collaboration partner, Fortay Connect. Mark Taylor from Fortay Connect says: “We matched the requirements and use cases of ESI Technology to the capabilities of GoToConnect. The company’s call requirements were quite straightforward, but we were able to use the infinite flexibility of GoToConnect to create a bespoke set-up for their needs.” Alan adds: “We purchased 76 GoToConnect seats for our users in Ireland and Wales. The system was easy to set up and the onboarding ran smoothly, thanks to excellent planning and regular communication from the project team.” Results Alan says: “The flexibility and customisation we now have at our fingertips is light years ahead of anything we had before. GoToConnect has really enhanced our capabilities, with features such as call groups, forwarding, caller ID and auto-attendant services.” Customers calling ESI Technologies now have many more options than simply leaving a voicemail. Calls not answered immediately are automatically forwarded to standby receptionists or mobile phones, enabling staff to receive and make calls wherever they are. These flexible call-routing capabilities have almost eliminated the problem of unanswered calls for ESI Technologies. All customer-facing product specialists now have the GoToConnect app on their mobiles, so they can always keep in touch with customers. Alan adds: “When a customer has gone to the effort of calling us, rather than using emails or messaging, we want to ensure they’re able to speak to somebody. GoToConnect allows us to provide that personal interaction almost every time. It gives us much greater flexibility by enabling our people to stay connected and work seamlessly from anywhere. Testimonial LogMeIn offered the prestige, the reputation and the expertise we were looking for. We like to build partnerships with our suppliers, and LogMeIn aligned with that approach and had the technological back-up to support our long-term requirements
7 Business Benefits of Moving from an On-Premises PBX to a Cloud Communications and Collaboration System Essential business apps are now born in the cloud. Whether you have a CRM solution, something for HR, or simple file storage, it’s probably in the cloud. But for any number of reasons—not the least of which is the relatively large investment required for a new PBX—many businesses have delayed upgrading their PBX and moving it to the cloud. Read More Here
Paragon Law Paragon Law is a niche immigration law firm, with specializations in corporate, personal immigration and asylum and human rights. Founded in the UK in 2003, the firm is based in Nottingham, UK but with a global client base and with associate offices in the US and Nigeria. www.paragonlaw.co.uk Challenge The Paragon Law strategy is to be an agile law firm. When Covid-19 hit, the company had to fast-track its plans to implement remote working. The company had always used a traditional office phone system, which meant phones had to be diverted to mobiles when staff worked from home. The system could only facilitate basic conference calls and had no capability for video calls or sharing documents. Group CEO, Thal Vasishta, says: “We recognized that the physical office could be a thing of the past. But in our business, it’s important to have face-to-face conversations with clients, who may be vulnerable or in difficult situations. Security is also very important, and we were concerned about the risks of using some of the freely available video-calling software.” Solution Paragon Law needed an integrated videoconferencing and phone system and Fortay Connect were able to arrange a discovery session with Paragon Law to demonstrate how GoTo could solve its problems. Mark says: “Just two days later, Thal placed the order. He said the decision was easy because GoTo was simply the best system he’d found. That’s also why we, as a communications technology specialist, choose to partner with LogMeIn, because we’re confident in offering GoTo products to our clients.” To meet Paragon Law’s pressing need for an online meeting system, LogMeIn set up GoToMeeting within days. GoToConnect, the unified, cloud-based phone solution, was active within a month. The set-up time for GoToConnect is dictated by the process of transferring phone numbers, which is Ofcom-regulated and takes around 30 days. Because GoTo is a cloud-based, SaaS solution, Paragon Law now has a single, monthly per-user fee to pay for its phone and meeting systems, instead of the usual capital costs and variable call and add-on charges of a traditional phone system. The monthly fee includes the phone system, videoconferencing, phone calls, all support, maintenance and software updates. Results Thal says: “Implementing GoToMeeting and GoToConnect had an immediate impact on our business. It meant our teams could work from anywhere, using any device. Videoconferencing is integrated into the software, so it’s easy for multiple people to connect at any time, wherever they are. And, importantly for us, there is complete end-to-end security. We have total flexibility when it comes to calling locally or internationally too, because the system is cloud-based rather than on-site.” Paragon Law was also able to switch to delivering customer seminars via videoconference, using GoToMeeting. It is now looking to adopt GoToWebinar, to take the professionalism of its webinars to the next level. Testimonial We had a detailed look at all the phone and video-calling systems available and GoTo was the best by a country mile. It’s had a huge impact on the way we collaborate as a team and the service we can offer to clients. It means that when we think about growth now, we don’t have to think in terms of larger offices, since all our people can work and connect easily from anywhere.
