14.2.2025
Case studies
Sonstige
actively
Many operators dread a technical conversion of their telephone system. True to the motto “Never touch a running system”, you'd rather forego the many benefits that a modern solution offers. Netconnex at privacy and sun protection manufacturer Teba GmbH & Co. KG shows that such a conversion can also take place in a completely different way.
The company Teba planned to modernize its 14-year-old Alcatel telephone system and the in-house call center with 45 employees. In addition, the previous Data Dimensions software is to be replaced by a more modern system. In order to be able to compensate for seasonal fluctuations, additional jobs were planned for temporary workers. This should also be possible after a renovation. Overall availability was perceived as poor by customers. In addition, you often had to wait on hold until you could be transferred to an employee. There were no recall campaigns and could not be carried out in time. A statistical evaluation that would have helped to localize the causes was also not available. Comprehensive reporting was not possible.
“In the past, we always had our backs to the wall when it came to accessibility issues. Today I can look at the system and see that the customer has left the queue after just 15 seconds.” Jörg Augstein, Head of Internal Sales
The first draft only provided for a test balloon with 5 workstations. Already at an early stage of the feasibility study, around 4 weeks after the initial contact, this was extended to the entire back office with 40 jobs. No problem thanks to the good scalability of netconnex solutions. In the end, the project was extended to the entire company.
In October 2019, netconnex will be one of three providers in the race to modernize the telephone system at Teba. The netconnex concept quickly prevailed over the competition. The cloud solution “Made in Germany” not only impressed management, but was also quickly received by works councils and employees. In this context, Teba is even talking about an increase in transparency for employees.
“Sometimes I had a solution to my problem after just a few minutes. The simple and uncomplicated communication with netconnex accompanied the entire project.” Jörg Augstein, Head of Internal Sales
On December 9, Teba's entire back office staff had already smoothly switched to the new cloud-based IP telephony. A small team of netconnex employees supported the changeover on site. In addition, support was largely provided remotely, partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Absolutely sufficient, as Jörg Augstein, Head of Internal Sales, states.
The winter rest of the seasonal business was also used to train staff extensively in how to use the new technology. With the start of the lockdown in spring, another advantage of the new technology came into play: employees can be sent to work from home without additional effort.
“A big advantage of this solution was the ability to simply send employees to work from home. This was a major competitive advantage, especially with the start of the lockdown.” Michael Kusenberg, Head of IT
On April 2nd, in the middle of the lockdown, the time had come and the entire renovation was completed. Including setting up VPN connections and adjustments to the company network.
Connecting production and warehouses was a particular challenge. Employees at changing locations and lots of shielding metal, which prevented the use of WLAN. Not an easy task that had to be tackled here. The solution used by netconnex uses cordless telephones in accordance with the DECT standard, which operate on different frequencies than conventional IP telephones. In order to still be able to integrate these telephones into the new system, special base stations are used, which are connected to the network. The employees' telephones dial themselves to the nearest base station as they walk through the halls and thus enable employees to be reached at all times.
Conclusion:
The feared failure during the changeover has, of course, not occurred. Inquiries could be resolved quickly and easily. Problems arose more in detail. For example, the telephone directory for production, which was forgotten to create during the planning phase but could be quickly added to.
The system has now also passed the first baptism of fire. The lockdown ended just in time for the start of the season and the prevented holidaymakers became eager builders who wanted to upgrade their own home with a sun protection solution from Teba. It took just 6 months from the first call to regular operation. The improved accessibility is very well received by customers. The only exception will probably remain the following complaint, which is probably not entirely serious:
“An old-established customer recently complained about the accessibility of our new plant. The waiting times are now so short that he would neither smoke nor drink coffee. These are luxury problems that we simply did not know before.” Jörg Augstein, Head of Internal Sales
Even after one year of operation, Teba is still more than satisfied. The performance of the telephone system fully met all expectations. Failures have become the absolute exception. Acceptance among Teba employees is growing with every passing day. This is not least due to the convenient operation of telephony with the CAESAR client from caseris.
The intelligent distribution of customer inquiries from the contact center, also from caseris, also has direct consequences for accessibility.
This is now stable at 95% with a daily call volume of 700-800 incoming and 300-400 outgoing calls. Before the introduction, this was just between 50% and 60%. If the customer now calls multiple times within the same day, he is always connected to the same employee. Even if all lines are busy, the customer will usually be called back after just a few minutes. Customers are therefore fully satisfied with the new service. Even the initial skepticism of many customers as to whether the high availability will continue has now been dispelled.
The management is also enthusiastic, they still needed overtime and Saturday work to enter orders last year, and today they are up to date on a daily basis in normal working hours and without any temporary staff. Simply because employee capacity can be better managed using monitoring and statistical functions. A service level of 85% KPI leaves nothing to be desired.
“We've practically turned the tables. Now it is no longer us who are difficult to reach, but our customers who receive a call back after 2-3 minutes and are no longer on the phone.” Jörg Augstein, Head of Internal Sales
In retrospect, Teba is happy to have taken this step. Simple implementation, excellent support and a solution that adapts to the customer's needs. A product that simply impresses and says Michael Kusenberg would choose Head of IT again and again.
The collaboration between Teba and netconnex is entering the next round. Several new features are planned. For even more convenience, netconnex telephony is to be integrated into Microsoft Teams. An intelligent IVR system (Interactive Voice Response), which is linked to the ERP system, should enable customers to quickly and easily find out delivery dates themselves.
Last but not least, communication should be expanded to include video telephony and chat functions. The latter includes the integration of live chat, AI chat and the integration of WhatsApp into the call flow.
