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Greenstone Carbon Management is a London-based company in the business of providing carbon measurement and management advice to companies. |
They work with major companies to account for and drive down carbon, realise significant operational cost savings, and mitigate the impact of emissions. They employ 22 people and are a rapidly growing, successful business.
They share new premises off Regent Street, London with their “sister” company St. Albans Capital. A number of directors and some staff work for both companies, hence the need for shared premises and a shared phone system.
WHAT PHONE SYSTEM DID THEY HAVE?
The previous phone system was a traditional PBX supplied by their landlord at the previous premises, which were serviced offices.
WHY WERE THEY LOOKING TO CHANGE?
Two main reasons: moving office as they were outgrowing the premises; and a need to cope with the growing number of staff. Sharing with St. Albans caused additional challenges as there was only one inbound number for two companies and outbound calls from Greenstone employees presented the St. Albans number.
WHAT WAS ATTRACTIVE ABOUT HOSTED?
The ability to "segment" the system into two companies, despite sharing the same physical resources, which is something you can’t do with a traditional telephone system. Flexibility and scalability are also the key factors. Greenstone also preferred to avoid a large up front capital expenditure and pay for it as they use it.
WHY CHOOSE GAMMA’S COMMUNICATOR HOSTED SOLUTION?
"The service provided a low capex solution with more flexibility and features (e.g. home working, different geographic numbers for the same office, etc.) It was also sold as a solution with advice available of the different options available. It was of significant help having a trial system implemented in the old office before making our final decision. This allowed us to test the system’s quality and functionality without any risk."
Matthew De Villiers, Director
"When we trialled the new service it really helped us streamline our handling of calls, reduce the waiting time and transfer time, and improve our administrator’s productivity."
Suzanne Cribb
HOW DID THE IMPLEMENTATION GO?
The system itself was easy as it was simply transferring and expanding from the trial system at the old office. The only problem Greenstone had was being let down by BT with access circuits at the last minute prior to moving in to the new office. This was overcome on a temporary basis by installing a wireless 3g router that their installer was able to provide.
WHAT IMPACT HAS THE NEW SYSTEM HAD ON GREENSTONE CARBON?
Costs.
"As the headcount has trebled in the company it is difficult to do a like for like comparison of costs. One thing I can categorically say, is that the new system is less expensive than the money we would have had to pay to implement a traditional PBX to cope with our increase in size. To be honest, the improvements in call handling, brand image and office productivity would have been worth an increase in costs anyway."
Matthew deVilliers, Director
Working practices and productivity
Receptionist – The calls are answered by the individual or by one of three staff who act as receptionists. If no one is available the Voice mail answers the call in the name of the Company or if callers have dialled direct numbers the person themselves. An easy to use auto attendant also helps callers get through to the right people quickly.
Field based staff use their mobile when out of the office yet can log in to a phone when working from the office. They only need to publish their DDI number and callers can get them when in or out of the office.
Twinning – They can even take a call on the mobile and then pick it up seamlessly on a desk phone. The two companies have different numbers the traditional finance company has an 020 7 number the new company and 020 3 number. They can add an Edinburgh or Cardiff number whenever they want.
"The great thing about Gamma’s telephony service is that it’s so easy to use. We’ve made major improvements in the way we handle telephony internally, but are still only just scratching the surface in terms of what we can do with the Communicator service. We just need time to get to the next level of sophistication."