Success Story

Zultys SirSpeedy Case Study

The Customer

Sir Speedy Whittier is a Whittier, California-based business that is part of the Franchise Servicees, Inc. (FSI) network, one of the nation's premier print-on-demand and business marketing solutions. Sir Speedy Whittier offers customers the convenience of doing business anyway they want, in-person or via telephone, fax, e-mail or online. Using the Sir Speedy Whittier MyDocs® online ordering and Document Management System, customers have the ability to design, order and manage their documents anywhere, anytime. The Sir Speedy Global Digital Network, with its affiliates, spans nearly 1,000+ centers in 26 countries.

Sir Speedy Whitter has expanded into a unique business space through the creation of Pixelmemories.com, an online customizable photo album service. Pixelmemories.com has in turn created numerous White Label personalized photo album services for KOA (Kampgrounds of America), University of Southern California (USC), and others.

The Challenge

Sir Speedy Whittier was increasingly concerned about the stability of its aging voice mail system - a critical need for a dynamic company that needs to react quickly to customer demands - and the functional limitations of its Panasonic phones, and as it grew to tap new business opportunities it found it was running into several obstacles:

• Flexibility:
  • The system it had in place made it difficult to manage multiple companies that leveraged the same core staff team
  • The ability to quickly address its customer needs were being affected by an awkward and rigid call handling system
• Ease, Speed and Resources: It took an unacceptable level of time and resources required to install or move phone extensions
• Multiple Platform Support: The company needed a system that could support both Mac and Windows-based computers

"As we expanded to tackle new business opportunities, I was getting really concerned about my phone system, and my voice mail system in particular," said George Coriaty, Owner of Sir Speedy Whittier. "From a management point of view I needed to make sure that my sales team could be in better touch with customers and other members of the team, stay on top of voice mail - and be able to cover multiple OS platforms and meet the needs of multiple companies that leverage our dynamic workforce."

The company evaluated multiple alternatives and decided that the best path forward was to adopt a VOIP system to provide Unified Communications, more flexible services and lay the foundation for future services that could benefit the company.

"Once we decided to go with a VOIP system we examined multiple vendor offerings, including solutions from Cisco, Avaya and Nortel," said Coriaty. "But their cost and licensing structures, plus the complexity of their offerings just weren't going to work for my company. They simply weren't affordable. Zultys was the perfect match for us. The Zultys system gave us all the features the larger companies were offering in a much less complicated form to purchase, deploy and manage, at much less cost. In fact, in some ways Zultys has so many features bundled into its offering that it perhaps exceeds our needs – but we've got the flexibility to grow with Zultys as our needs change."

The Solution

Sir Speedy Whittier worked with its Reseller, MTG Consulting Services, to craft the Zultys solution it needed. Sir Speedy Whittier installed a Zultys MX250 IP PBX along with Zultys phones, and secured licenses for MXIE™ (the Zultys Unified Communications Client), Fax, Call Record and other features. They also migrated away from expensive hosted Verizon business lines to a Primary Rate Interface from an approved Zultys ITSP, PAETEC. This provided an immediate 50% cost savings. Zultys open standard interfaces made it easy to handle the day-to-day management of their telephone moves, additions and changes themselves. Not only were the changes made more quickly it also saved money.

"We had a very good installation experience," said Coriaty. "Everyone's going to experience some issues, but we were extremely happy with how quickly Zultys moved to address our concerns. I can honestly say that our Zultys system performs flawlessly – in fact, it's been trouble free since we installed it."

Sir Speedy Whittier was also able to leverage the capabilities of the Zultys MX250 and Unified Communications solutions to create a "virtual" employee base that could handle the needs of its White Label customers such as KOA Kampgrounds of America and the University of Southern California.

"We're not a huge company and we have a lot of specific customer needs," said George Coriaty. "We have to provide full branded experience for our those coming into us via our White Label customers. When a customer calls us about their USC "Trojan Memories" photo album, they expect to speak to a customer service rep from that company, using that company name, who can swiftly access their order and account information."

Sir Speedy Whittier used the Zultys system to manage unique DID numbers for each of its White Label customers. Each DID is directed to its own ACD groups as opposed to Sir Speedy Whittier's general line. When a call comes in, Employees within the company's customer service group can quickly see via a MXIE incoming call screen-pop which White Label service is associated with the call, and respond appropriately.

The Impact

The Zultys system allowed Sir Speedy Whittier to support their workforce and operations across Mac and Windows operating systems, boost inter-office communications and provide seamless call handling for multiple co-located "White Label" service companies.

Sir Speedy Whittier has come to rely heavily on Zultys' MXIE Unified Communications client for intra office communications through Presence and Instant Messaging, integrated email, voice messaging and easy call-handling. A key concern of the company has also been more than met through the Visual Voicemail feature of MXIE which lets sales and operating staff quickly locate and act on time-sensitive messages, and forward voice mails to other with a simple drag-and-drop action.

Sir Speedy Whittier was also pleased that Zultys regularly enhances and upgrades its core software to constantly improve the service experience. The Release Version 5.0 has allowed the company to integrate off-site workers into their corporate system without exposing their MX250. The MXconnect feature, in conjunction with Session Border Controller lets them use outside SIP-phones and other phones and keep their MX system behind the NAT firewall. This has allowed them to securely use MXIE softphone and home office phones to get business done.

"Providing market leadership to a business providing printing and personal marketing demands instant answers, regardless of whether you're mobile, at a customer's office, or at your desk," said George Coriaty, Owner of Sir Speedy Whittier. "It demands connecting across any media: voice, fax, data, voicemail. Zultys does more in one platform then others do in 4 or 5 platforms, all cleanly integrated through their easy to use desk-top client. I was also pleasantly surprised that Zultys provides call recording as part of their base features, as well as auto attendants. I can count on being reachable wherever I am."

George went on to state, "The Zultys solution far exceeded my expectations, from its unparalleled ease-of-use, to the impact the remote access and ease of management has had on my productivity, to the fact that after a year it's been absolutely trouble free. Even if I didn't save hard dollars it would have been worth every penny in the increased productivity."