Connect IT were the proud recipients of an Excellence in Enterprise award from the Wicklow County Enterprise Board at the 'Celebrating Enterprise' event held in the Wicklow County Campus Offices at Clermont Rathnew.
read the full storyIrish gift delivery company, Gifts.ie, has moved offices with minimal disruption thanks to IP telephony and ACD Queues (Automated Call Distribution) installed by Connect IT.
Connect IT's IP telephony and ACD Queues have allowed Gifts.ie to transfer the phone-based business to the new offices without gaps in the call service. The pre-programmed IP phones connect to the company's virtual PBX over any broadband connection.
"With the Connect IT system, once there is Internet connection, we can plug out the phone and plug it in again somewhere else," explains Anthony Birchall, corporate gift director for Gifts.ie. "We could even plug it in at home if we wanted, with no repercussion for the clients, and all for the same flat rate. That is a great advantage of Connect IT's systems.
"A traditional PBX system would cost 5 or 10,000 and we would have to install it and then transfer it to a new office, where it would have to be re-installed."
International Calls
"50% of the orders come from abroad, as we have many customers living overseas with relatives back in Ireland," adds Birchall. "In particular, we have an important customer base in Australia, New Zealand, UK and US. That's why it's so important to have an account with Connect IT which allows us to manage efficiently all our international calls."
Busy Times
The business grows at different rate throughout the year, with September to December being the busiest time. Gifts.ie estimates the company gets 50% revenue from the sales over Christmas.
"We start preparing hampers and gift baskets in September but as December comes, we need lots of extra staff to answer the phone calls," he adds. Purchasing an expensive PBX system to handle multiple calls and paying for several phone line rentals wasn't an option for the gifts company.
"We used to have several phone lines but now, instead of renting 10 phone lines and paying for that rental, we only need one or two phone lines to service all the calls," he adds. "There was no point having lots of phones laying being unused all year round just to use them at Christmas time."
Four IP Phones and two ACD Queues, installed by Connect IT, allow Gifts.ie to have the benefits of PBX systems without the cost and the installation time. The main advantages of the systems are the flat call rates, ability to use the system in different locations, call queuing and "voicemail by email" facility, delivered to staff at gifts.ie by email.
