Here we look at how Toshiba reseller partner Excell upgrades and manages self storage company Big Yellow Group's extensive comms infrastructure.
Pioneering self storage company Big Yellow Group was founded in September 1998, listed on AIM in May 2000 and moved to the full list on the London Stock Exchange in 2002. The company operates from a platform of 77 stores and when new facilities are built the portfolio will provide approximately 4.8 million sq ft of flexible storage space.
Big Yellow's focus on location and visibility of the buildings and its customer ethos have helped to create one of the most recognised brand names in the storage industry. Every room in every store is individually alarmed, while secure perimeter fencing, electronic coded gates, intruder alarms, PIN code entry and CCTV (which is externally monitored 24 hours a day) provide additional levels of security for customers. Its expansion has been organic and looking for innovative ways to improve the customer experience is a priority. An important component of its customer experience strategy is the company's communications infrastructure.
Big Yellow first purchased a Toshiba phone system in 1998 when it standardised with the Strata DK280, and has continued to upgrade its installed base as and when the need has arisen. During this process the Strata DK280 was replaced by the Strata CT, the Strata CTX and now the Strata CIX. In the latest phase of development Toshiba's reseller partner Excell Group shipped 36 Strata CIX670 systems to upgrade the remaining Big Yellow estate.
Toshiba's flexibility in supporting upgrades to previous Toshiba models when launching a new PBX has made the transitions to the new platform straightforward, with many of the existing components being reused while adding the latest technology such as VoIP. The latest upgrade moves away from traditional digital ISDN lines with the deployment of IP trunks, with the cost savings estimated to make the upgrade self-funding over the next three years.
Big Yellow's nationwide presence was posing challenges in terms of communications. With it operating on numerous sites, its ISDN line rental costs were the cause of considerable expense to the business. Excell Group, equipped with expertise gained through dedicated training from Toshiba, possessed the knowledge and capacity to solve this issue. In place of the ISDN lines, the core network was revamped to feature a SIP interconnect, which subsequently enabled each Big Yellow branch to be fitted with SIP trunking.
On top of the cost-savings that SIP trunking provided, Big Yellow was also able to benefit from enhanced flexibility and manageability. It has also seen customer facing benefits from the move to IP trunking, as IP has allowed Big Yellow to improve the customer experience when managing call flows during busy periods or when the stores are closed. The delay while a call forward is processed by the traditional network can add a number of seconds delay into the processing of a customer call, which does not fit well when the company prides itself on responding to customer enquiries efficiently.
Stuart Grinnall, IT Manager at Big Yellow, said: "The upgrade to a more sophisticated set-up is a big step for us. It will allow us to significantly reduce our business overheads and reduce the number of ISDN channels associated with forwarding calls between sites. Being able to divert calls centrally rather than outsourcing them to a central call centre should dramatically decrease our expenditure on line rental.
"We also avoid the headache and expense of replacing the whole estate in one go and can benefit from backwards compatibility with the systems we already have in place. Excell and Toshiba have enabled Big Yellow take a bite sized approach to the project, gradually replacing the system bit by bit, and avoiding a major overhaul which has the potential to jeopardise operations."
Adept at deploying and scaling SIP, hosted PBX and Unified Communications, Excell is well positioned to share research, best-practices, applications and experience, and collectively create bespoke solutions and drive change. Excell Account Director Phil Jones added: "The sheer number of Toshiba products used by Big Yellow is testament to its compatibility with the customer service values of the storage company. There are now 67 Big Yellow stores which use Toshiba's phone systems and 66 per cent of all products at Big Yellow are from Toshiba.
"Cloud communications is more than VoIP or UC, it's a new way to build, deploy and scale enterprise comms systems. It goes further than reducing equipment costs and providing higher definition services, it provides features that service the bespoke needs of customers and keeps Big Yellow at the front of the field."