Fuse.Cloud VoIP phone and fiber internet services are making it possible for the multi-campus 2020 Research firm to feel like one cohesive company.
Luke Pickard, IT director for 2020 Research, uses Fuse.Cloud to make four offices, plus remote workers, feel like one company.
When IT Director Luke Pickard started looking for a new voice solution or his company, 2020 Research, he wasn’t really considering an integrated solution that included Internet services and digital faxing solutions. He had four different regional locations—Denver, Nashville, Charlotte and Miami—and a number of remote employees scattered around the country that he was trying to support with an integrated phone system.
“Our system was a hot mess. Each of the four sites had their own system, and while there had been some attempt to link those systems, it never got finished or corrected,” Pickard said. “From an IT perspective it was a pain to manage. Each system was different and independent, so the process to change a person’s extension or update a voicemail was different at each location.”
Fuse.Cloud VoIP Ties Together Multiple Sites
2020 Research has multiple locations that needed phones and messaging the interact as one system
Pickard’s goal was to tie the four locations and remote workers together so that they were on the same phone system, in a way that could encourage simple collaboration between offices. While the Denver, Nashville, Miami and Charlotte offices all have their own main phone numbers, internally people can dial just the last four digits of an extension and connect to anyone within the company.
“We want these offices to feel like a single unit. And for our salespeople out in the field — it’s nice to have them feel like they’re able to get phone calls at their normal number.”
Pickard says that when it became clear that Fuse.Cloud VoIP phone services offered all those features—plus a digital faxing solution and fiber Internet for each office—it was “a no-brainer.”
Special Ring Groups and Software Extensions
2020 Research used Fuse.Cloud VoIP features to create ring groups and patterns for departments where employees are in multiple states
Along with the extensions that reach across locations, the 2020 Research phone system is also set up with special ring groups—a call to technical support, for instance, rings a number of extensions until it gets picked up. In their case, some members of the tech support team are actually working out of a home office—so the ring group can traverse state boundaries just like other features of the Fuse.Cloud VoIP phone services.
Pickard notes that some employees have an extension without a handset, instead using their laptop and a headset to take calls thanks to a software client or an app on their mobile phone. While they could easily forward their office extension to their personal cell phone, employees who use the app can mask their personal phone number so it appears that all of their calls are accomplished using their office extension.
Fuse.Cloud’s Service = Icing on the Cake
Fuse.Cloud customer service is really the icing on the cake, Pickard says. “It’s nice to get support from them quickly. So many times when you call a cable company or a telephone company, you’re transferred two or three times, or it goes overseas and there’s a communication barrier — that doesn’t happen here for me. It’s nice to just make a call and they’re quick and responsive to our needs.”
2020 Research has moved about 120 of its roughly 150 employees to Fuse.Cloud VoIP phone and fiber services, and they are planning to continue rolling out the solution to the remainder of the employees in the coming months. Denver, Nashville and remote employees all currently use Fuse.Cloud VoIP services; Charlotte and Miami offices will be up for the changeover in summer of 2019.
“I’m really excited to get all four of our sites on the same platform. Being able to pay one bill every month will be beneficial to our accounting team; we’ll have our phone service provider, fax service and internet provider all condensed into one service,” he said. “That’s a lot nicer.”
