Challenge
Champion engaged CBTS after experiencing recurring issues with its previous technology provider, including slow Internet speeds, high costs, and poor customer service. They had been paying for an expensive nationwide MPLS network and were facing pressure to reduce IT costs. Additionally, the company found itself increasingly depending on Salesforce and other “Software as a Service” solutions, which escalated the importance of finding a cost-efficient solution to improve connectivity throughout its branch footprint.
Champion’s IT concerns weren’t unfamiliar to the CBTS team, and we were ready to provide them with solutions that met their needs and budget. They needed a turnkey solution package that could scale up or down as their business required. Champion Window & Home Exteriors came to CBTS to connect their 50+ locations together in a more cost effective way while taking advantage of more reliable, and lower-cost bandwidth.
Solution
CBTS recommended Network as a Service (NaaS) and Hosted Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) to meet Champion’s connectivity, budget, and customer service needs. The solutions offered Champion the following benefits:
- Higher bandwidth, higher performance, and lower costs compared to traditional MPLS.
- Firewall that provides security and peace of mind for private customer resources.
- A customer partnership model that allows CBTS IT experts to extend the capabilities of customer’s IT staff.
- Ends technology obsolescence by building hardware refresh in the solution lifecycle.
- Moves network infrastructure to the cloud.
- Visibility into the network from any connected device.
- Central management of workload distribution through collaborative communication solutions.
- Hosted UC delivers enhanced efficiency while freeing up internal IT staff to focus on their mission-critical iniatives.
Results
We had the opportunity to interview Champion’s IT Director, George Price, and VP of Information Technology, Dave Hofmeister, to get their insider feedback on the solutions CBTS provided.
George said, “With the CBTS NaaS solution, we were able to increase our end user experience by 100x in some cases using public internet bandwidth versus private MPLS bandwidth. User adoption of all of our services went up tenfold. CBTS Hosted UC allowed us to provide new desktop hardware and modern phone system services at the same cost we were previously paying for the services alone. Being able to connect our locations via the phone system now is another great benefit to distribute workload across locations.”
Information Technology VP, Dave Hofmeister, “NaaS allowed us to set up a VPN over the public internet from each of the retail store locations that could be centrally administered from my team without relying on a carrier for administration, and it allowed us to have a common, standard, easy-to-use platform across all of the 50+ locations. In addition to the network solutions, we implemented a VoIP phone system that has been a great benefit to us. By implementing CBTS Hosted Unified Communications platform, the month-to-month payment plan allows us to only pay for what we use as we add stations and offices, and we can administer that phone system as a single phone system across the country. The partnership with CBTS helped us lay the foundation to get up to speed to where we need to be currently, and also for our future growth that fits our business plan.”
CBTS provided Champion with the business outcomes they hoped to achieve. Through deploying NaaS and Hosted UC, CBTS was able to provide them with a better customer, employee, and IT managed service partner experience. Champion is now better prepared for the future as it is operating in a more agile, flexible, and cost-effective way.
- Moving to NaaS and Hosted UCaaS reduced costs by 50 percent.
- NaaS is delivering increased speed and connectivity to employees and customers across all 55 locations.
- CBTS monitors their voice and network IT services as a managed service.
- Deployed Hosted UC solution for 600 seats drives efficiency without adding onto thier IT staff headcount.