Telecommunications Immersion in Business
Posted on Tue, Sep 20, 2011 @ 02:57 PM
The ITEXPO West 2011, “World's CommunicationsConference and Expo” ran from Sept. 13-15th in Austin Texas. This is the event that teaches resellers, enterprises, SMBs, and Government Agencies how to select IP-based voice, video, fax, and unified communications to purchase or resell. It's where service providers learn how to profitably roll out services their customers have been waiting for. It is also where buyers, sellers, resellers, and manufacturers meet to forge relationships and share information. It is total immersion and education in Telecommunications for businesses. Kevin Gavin from ShoreTel was an invited panelist on the panel, “Turning Your Unified Communications Solution Into a Mobile Asset.”
The InformationWeek 500 tracks the IT practices of the nation’s most innovative IT organizations, providing a unique opportunity to understand and examine the business practices of these firms across core areas of operations, including, technology deployment, IT budgets, business-technology infrastructure, and IT strategies. A ShoreTel Customer, Group 1 Automotive’s VP of IS, James Druzbik, was recently honored and named one of the InformationWeek 500.
Fortune 500 company Group 1 Automotive is the fourth largest automotive dealership group in the United States; based in Houston, Group 1 had $5.5 billion in annual revenue in 2010. The company owns and operates 105 automotive dealerships, 134 franchises and 28 collision service centers throughout the U.S. and U.K. Through its dealerships, the company sells new and used cars and light trucks; arranges financing, vehicle service and insurance contracts; provides maintenance and repair services; and sells replacement parts.
Druzbik and Group 1 Automotive were recognized for their Unified Communications initiative, which was based on ShoreTel’s solutions. Group 1 installed ShoreTel across their organization, which included 134 franchises and more than 7,454 employees. With the help from ShoreTel partner LANtelligence, Group 1 charted a new path for the communication between all of their locations to maintain their focus on developing innovative approaches to the automotive industry.
ShoreTel was chosen for their Unified Communications project because ShoreTel provided the best total cost of ownership, was simple to use and increased productivity. One of Group 1’s unique selling points is “to give customers what they need to make their visit more efficient and enjoyable” and they utilize various ShoreTel technologies to communicate with customers over the phone and through Internet channels. ShoreTel’s Unified Communications has transformed how Group 1 employees work and customers are treated, which results in a win-win for everyone!
The most important feature of your phone system is one that no one will ever see the ARCHITECTURE. The architecture behind the scenes can make your system easy or difficult, cost-effective or a money pit. Don't buy a phone system until you understand how it was built.
TCO (total cost of ownership), ShoreTel's powerful all-in-one UC solution was designed from the ground up to take advantage of IP technology and eliminate the kind of complexity found in competing solutions that keeps organizations tangled up in high costs. A complete TCO analysis enables organizations to compare competive solutions and pricing on equal footing, and align those solutions with their individual business needs. If the competitive data shows that ShoreTel’s price is higher, than ShoreTel will lower its price to beat the competition.
To recieve more info about ShoreTel and its variety of solutions, please contact us or request a demo today! Xtelesis helps businesses of all sizes move forward with our popular business solutions.