IPcelerate.com

Customer: HOSS Equipment Company

About the Customer

Hoss Equipment Company is a leading independent global dealer of large new and used heavy construction and mining equipment. Founded in 1990, Hoss provides new, rebuilt and used heavy equipment solutions for highway construction, mass excavation, landfill, quarry/aggregate, coal mining and other surface mining applications including precious metals. Headquartered in Irving, TX, the company has equipment yards in Texas, Nevada and Minnesota, with sales offices located in Canada, Washington and Texas.

Initial Expectations from VoIP

Hoss Equipment Company was operating a hybrid telephony system that included VoIP service for their remote employees. This allowed them first-hand experience with the quality and cost efficiencies inherent with the technology. The organization transitioned to a full IP infrastructure in 2007 in order to decrease telephony operating costs and simplify maintenance and employee relocation throughout all their facilities.

Addressing Primary Business Challenges

There were several standard telephony features Hoss Equipment needed to implement with their new VoIP system. They needed a way to page directly to phones or overhead to specific buildings, and they needed to provide a means of blocking incoming calls during important meetings or when working up against critical task deadlines. C-level executives and key sales people also needed a way to record calls on an as-needed basis for documentation purposes. To solve these business challenges, Hoss selected IPcelerate’s IPsession server for its Paging and Do Not Disturb solutions, and the IPstudio server for its On-Demand Call Recording capabilities.

IPcelerate Solutions

The IPsession Do Not Disturb solution allows Hoss employees to block their IP phones from ringing so they are not interrupted while working on a critical project or in a meeting. Incoming calls reach the phone, but do not result in an audible ring which could disturbs the employee. While Hoss IP phones currently allow employees to reach each other through the Intercom function, the IPsession DND solution can also block intercom and paging interruptions if desired.

Utilizing IPsession’s PageZone solution, Hoss has created a nationwide alert system encompassing all its facilities. Through this capability, Hoss established six different groups, or zones, of IP phones for receiving pages. The groups are segmented by the location of the employee (headquarters, sales offices, etc.) and alerts are sent internally within headquarters (and optionally over outdoor paging horns), and externally to the sales offices, depending on the message content.

IPstudio’s On-Demand Call Recording solution is now available to C-level executives and key sales people. This feature allows the Hoss employee to initiate call recording at any point during the conversation and record the call from the beginning. This capability has allowed for improved documentation, better order accuracy and a greater level of customer service for Hoss.

New Telephony Experience

VoIP has made life easier for Hoss Equipment in many ways. The system is easier to operate and requires little maintenance. The IT staff has increased efficiencies and decreased costs when relocating employees by eliminating the need to pull new wires for phones. By deploying VoIP in all the facilities nationwide, Hoss Equipment has increased work productivity with Do Not Disturb capabilities, improved communication between offices with Paging, and provided a recording solution not possible with their old system.

Next Steps/Higher Expectations

Hoss Equipment plans to fully integrate IPsession’s Photo Album feature on select IP phones throughout their facilities. Photo albums allow the company to display specific images on the dashboards of IP phones, which Hoss will utilize to present new equipment directly to the sales force, as well as still video shots of the equipment yard. Key sales prompts will also appear, helping to increase sales and manage inventory movement. Hoss also plans to deploy IPcelerate’s icon-driven dashboards on IP phones for call recording, paging and Do Not Disturb initiation with the touch of an icon.