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Work made easier for online auction and publishing company with Switchvox and Foehn |
About ATG Media
ATG Media is the UK's leading provider of specialist information and services to the fine art and antiques industry, publishing the weekly trade magazine, The Antique Trade Gazette in print and on-line.
The company is also a pioneer of live online auctions and supports thousands of online bidders and auctioneers across the globe from its 65-employee office in central London.
The Challenge
The driving force behind ATG Media's phone system replacement was its heavy reliance on telephony as a core business function combined with an ageing legacy system. The ten year old PBX system was becoming increasingly more difficult to administer, as was sourcing additional parts.
The Solution
Head of IT at ATG Media, Jeremy Langworthy had worked with open source technologies previously including Asterisk, the open source telephony software. He wanted to find a solution that provided the benefits of open source but with some level of product development and support.
It was also important for ATG Media to source a system that could integrate with its other business applications such as its bespoke CRM and database systems.
Jeremy's search led him to select Switchvox – Digium Asterisk's turn-key PBX built on Asterisk and Foehn, Digium's Premier Solutions Partner to handle the installation.
The Results
- Call Queues & Pick Up Groups
The publishing and editorial departments now have their own call queues and pick-up groups allowing communications intended for this side of the business to be handled more efficiently at an earlier stage.
- IVR Editor
On the other side of the business, where the support desk team assist online bidders, there is now a much better flow of inbound calls. They ring in order of priority and route more intelligently to the relevant person or group. This has freed up time of ATG support managers who are not answering as many front line calls. Jeremy commented. "With a small team, managing the resources we have available as effectively as possible is very important."
- Reporting
Support Managers are also now using the call reporting available on the Switchvox interface to monitor average call time of new staff and use this data as an input into training and staff reviews.
- Remote Working
ATG Media use off-site contractors to support auctions in places such as Hong Kong and New York that take place out of office hours. Previously, the company used a third party service to redirect the support lines to their mobiles. Now with Switchvox, the contractors use softphones and headsets and can immediately connect through a VPN to a particular queue or call group when they are needed.
- Switchvox Mobile
All the management team have iPhones and use the Switchvox Mobile app to check voicemail and re-direct calls to their mobile when they are on the move.
- Systems Administration
For the IT team, they have found it quicker and easier to administer and make changed to the system through the Switchvox web interface.
Overall, since the deployment, ATG Media have been able to apply the features available with Switchvox to enhance the way its business operates.
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