Eastern Western Motor Group is Scotland's foremost quality car, van, truck and bike retailer. They are also the 2nd largest Motor Group in Scotland and part of the UK's Top 20 dealers. The scale of the company belies the fact that they are privately owned with a history stretching back to 1927. With over 80 years of heritage and experience to call upon they are well qualified to look after all of their clients motoring needs.

 
The Challenge
Commsworld have worked and grown along with Eastern Western for over 15 years.  We have been a trusted advisor and service provider to the group helping them communicate throughout their 34 dealerships and 17 franchises allowing them to deliver world class service to their clients.
 
Good communication is critical in the highly competitive world of automotive sales and service, amidst a market that has had a tumultuous couple of years.  Eastern Western had their current communications system for several years and their old legacy system could not deliver the new operational efficiencies demanded by such a large prestigious business as they expanded.
 
Their existing PBX was also an ‘end of life’ system which meant that new software and product updates were no longer accessible.
 
Eastern Western needed a solution that could achieve seamless communication, cope with the ever changing demands of the company, respond more quickly to customers and secure competitive advantage in their industry.
 
Detail of Solution Requirements
Commsworld consulted with the IT team to fully understand the current requirements and demands of the company.  Ripping out the old system completely was not an option as Eastern Western had invested heavily over the years to ensure they were always ahead of the game.
 
It was decided that a slow migration to IP would be implemented using the Mitel 3300 ICP as a gateway onto the system.
 
Mitel takes unified communications beyond the conventional context by integrating legacy telephony and IP telephony with a multiplicity of communications tools.  Organisations can take   advantage of these new applications without    sacrificing their existing infrastructure.
 
Eastern Western took advantage of this to implement new innovative work enhancements while retaining their existing equipment. 
 
Regardless of what was going on behind the scenes it was still ‘business as usual’ for this leading auto retailer, which is why Commsworld phased in the introduction of IP telephony so they could continue to use their existing PBX equipment while introducing new IP-based phone system.
        
To ensure that there was no disruption to Eastern Western’s business, especially as they are so customer orientated all work was completed out of hours.
 
Given that communications plays such a major role in this business it was essential that any new investment in their communications infrastructure was also future proofed.  They needed a solution that was scalable to adapt to future escalating   requirements.
 
The Mitel 3300 ICP does not dictate how and when its components need to be deployed, but instead offers flexibility in design.  The choice of implementation is driven by an organisation’s requirements, as and when.        
 
To facilitate and compliment the new system Commsworld rolled-out a fully managed Wide Area Network (WAN) which help consolidate existing voice and data services and eliminate   unnecessary costs.  Furthermore, with the move to the Commsworld billing platform they would move to ‘one bill’ for everything as well as being able to carry out in-depth call analysis and reports.
 
In the retail industry a telephone call is the quickest and the most convenient method of communicating important information quickly and efficiently, and not just on land-lines, mobiles are increasingly becoming a big part of the mobile   workforce, but these calls are more costly.
 
To overcome this problem Commsworld installed three mobile gateways that would support all the sites. 

These gateways bridge the gap between Eastern Western’s traditional PBX and the IP network allowing calls to seamlessly pass between the two networks but more importantly dramatically reducing landline to mobile calls.  Costs are reduced thanks to Least Call Routing (LCR), a sophisticated gateway system where calls are   always routed in the cheapest possible way.
 
 
Ricky Nicol, CEO, Commsworld commented:
“Commsworld delivers independent advice and ‘best of breed’ solutions all managed with a single point of contact.  This relationship allows Eastern Western to focus 100% on their own business knowing that the support they require to flourish is in place.

Business Benefits
• Lower PBX costs.
• Reduced telephone monthly bills.
• Seamless connectivity.
• Centralised telephony operation and control.
• A flexible solution that will grow with the business.
• Increased efficiency in call handling.
• Faster and more effective communication
• Greater security and reliability.
• Pay As You Grow - simple, cost-effective add-on modules allow you to add phone lines and extensions as your business grows.