Midland Telecom

The Customer

Guhring is a German-owned manufacturer that supplies high quality, advanced design cutting tools for all kinds of manufacturing businesses. With over 30,000 standard products, including drills, taps, end mills and tool holders, Guhring is recognised worldwide for excellent quality, precision manufacturing and outstanding tool performance.

The opening of the new headquarters saw Birmingham-based Guhring create 50 new jobs and safeguard a further 75. The firm is now planning to double in size to further expand both its manufacturing, re-grinding and R&D within its first five years at the new site.

Their Needs

Already a customer of Midland Telecom for many years, Guhring contacted us for support and advice during the move to their new premises in the Aston Hub.

The Unify Telephone System installed by Midland Telecom in 2010 was still in optimal condition and working well. The requirements were to future proof both the IT & Telecoms allowing for future expansions whilst also ensuring the move from 2 Sites into 1 was completed as smoothly as possible avoiding any significant downtime.

Guhring also operated Leased Line Internet Connections that required upgrading with resilience adding.

The Solution

The solution provided by Midland Telecom consisted of an upgrade from a Unify Openoffice MX to an Openscape Business X5 with a Conversion to SIP Trunks.

After searching the market place and discussing requirements with both New & Existing Providers Guhring made the choice to take this opportunity to transfer and expand their Leased Line Internet Services with Midland Telecom. This allowed a sufficient Project Management and ensured moving forward there was a Single Point of Contact for anything related to Voice or Data Connectivity.

The Unify System Upgrade expanded the integration of Unified Communications (Unify myPortal Software) with SIP playing a very important part in Disaster Recovery and Failover Plans (which little did anyone know was going to be tested not long after completion!).

Whilst Leased Line Upgrades ensured HD Voice Quality and Quality of Service for all Voice & Data Services with a Comprehensive Service Level Agreement (SLA) ensuring Guhring are never without a connection. Being part of a Multi-National Company, services such as Video Conferencing and Remote Desktop Sharing are only going to increase and the 2x 100MB Connections deployed will ensure there will never be any application to too advanced to utilise.

Implementation

Working over the Easter Weekend, Midland Telecom Technicians with assistance from Guhring Staff; transferred the Businesses voice services and telephone equipment to the new premises without any disruption to manufacturing or administration. Prior to the final stage of moving, all SIP and Leased Line Internet services had already been Installed, Tested & Configured and Guhring’s staff had been fully trained on the new Unified Communication telephony functions of MyPortal, the Unify Application for Desktop or Outlook Integration that provides access to all UC Suite functions of OpenScape Business.

Key benefits

Private Uncontended Fibre Internet Access up to 100Mb.

Unify OpenScape Office System providing full Unified Communication functionality.

Full IP System allowing Simple Moves & Changes.

SIP Trunks providing Cost Savings with Quick and Automatic Disaster Recovery/Failover.

Increases Business Productivity.

Single Point of Contact for all support.

Direct Line to a Dedicated Account Manager.

“Midland Telecom gives me the confidence that our phone system and the internet will always work for us from now until the future.”

Chris Weston, Production Manager at Guhring

The Customer

Founded in 1973, Guhring started as sales, stocking and distribution and it has now grown into an established UK manufacturing company. The company employs a team of field technical support engineers and in-house design and application engineers to offer customers the latest technology. Guhring Ltd can offer all the products from the company’s UK operation and complement by an extensive stock holding of standard and special products.

Their Needs

With a range of 1,620 standard products in over 44,000 sizes, the aim is to provide the ideal solution in the fastest possible time. In 2010, the 5 year lease on their existing Siemens HiPath 3550 system was due to end. So it was the time to provide a more suitable solution for their needs. Especially, high on the list of requirements for the business was the need to improve call handling to guarantee the best level of customer service.

The Solution

The Unify OpenScape Office solution allows everyone to indicate their presence to each other. This greatly speeds up call answering and means that customers are put through to the right person after a few seconds.

Implementation

OpenScape Office Centre was the core solution and removed the problem of calls being directed to the wrong members of the staff. Now, calls were answered promptly, improving staff morale and customer service. OpenScape Office puts all the features of the system into the Outlook window. This enables the users to change their status from their calendar, to use their contact database to dials someone and they can view all their email messages, voice mails and faxes from one place.