How a Telephony Managed Service Resolves Headaches for Macfarlane Packaging
OVERVIEW
Mark Selby, eCommerce Director, at Macfarlane Packaging, was struggling with a complex telephony system and services infrastructure. They needed a trusted partner to consolidate and streamline their system and services so that costs and complexity could be reduced.
ABOUT MACFARLANE PACKAGING
Established in 1949 Macfarlane Packaging is part of the Macfarlane Group which has a turnover of nearly £150 million and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1973.
They are the UK’s largest distributor of packaging consumable products with a market share of approximately 20% and operate through 17 Regional Distribution Centres supplying customers on a local, regional and national basis. In addition, they have two manufacturing sites which design and manufacture bespoke packaging solutions.
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THE CHALLENGE
As Macfarlane Packaging grew they acquired a number of businesses and over the years inherited a disparate assortment of PBX’s, voice networks and carrier services.
Mark Selby faced the challenge of managing a fragmented telephony infrastructure across 20 sites in both England and Scotland.
This ad hoc array of suppliers with their respective contract terms and a variety of product solutions were proving a strain for his IT team to manage. With no single point of contact or dedicated customer care telephony issues often took ages to resolve and were compounded by a blame culture between suppliers. In addition, the billing was complex and time intensive to manage.
Mark’s increasing frustration with this inefficient system and the service they received from his incumbent line provider prompted him to investigate alternatives. He quickly realised that a “Managed Telephony Solution” would resolve these issues and free up IT resources. He also realised that the telephony partner, not only needed to be a dedicated specialist focussed on customer service, but also adaptable to their ongoing voice and data requirements.
Mark explains:‘ We knew we were wasting time and money so wanted to rectify the situation as quickly as possible. I knew of DV02′s reputation as trusted telephony specialists so called them in to see how they could help.’
THE SOLUTION
DV02 started by undertaking a structured telephony audit and interviewing key stakeholders across the organisation. They also evaluated the contracts for Macfarlane Packaging’s Line Rental and Call charges, Inbound Services, PBX Maintenance, MPLS Networks and ADSL Internet Access.
Besides the service issues mentioned above, this audit also revealed a number of services that were out of contract or surplus to requirements. Based on these findings DV02 presented a proposal to centralise all the telephony services under a “Single Managed Service” that was accountable for every aspect of Macfarlane’s telephony.
On acceptance of the DV02 proposal the core changes were implemented over a 3 week period. DV02 started by transferring all the Lines, Calls and Inbound services to DV02 and implementing a new bespoke billing system specifically designed for Macfarlane Packaging.
All other contracts were moved to DV02 to manage and re-bill until DV02 could re-negotiate these on renewal. This method of implementing, whilst restricted by current contracts, still provided Macfarlane Packaging with the solution they were looking for quickly.
‘We have worked with DV02 for over 10 years and we continue to be delighted with the flexible, expert service they provide. DV02 have a unique ability to make our problems go away. They present solutions rather than challenges and take responsibility, often beyond their remit, to ensure that issues are resolved quickly and efficiently.
DV02 have a thorough understanding of our business and Vince Potter regularly provides me with valuable insight into how the latest developments in technology can help us improve efficiencies in the business. I highly recommend DV02 as a proactive, trusted telecoms partner that adds value and always delivers.’
Mark Selby, eCommerce Director, Macfarlane Packaging
This and the consolidation of suppliers resulted in an immediate improvement in service levels and a significant reduction in telephony costs. In fact, this consolidation freed staff to work on other IT services.
Another immediate improvement was the curing of the ‘billing headache’. Under DV02′s control the billing was simplified to a single monthly invoice. In addition all the services and products were attributed to cost centres resulting in more transparency and better control of the budgeting process.
OUTCOMES
The new centralised service has taken away the hassle of having to manage multiple different suppliers and hardware, freed up management time, provided better management reporting and simplified billing. Mark is delighted with its efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Key Benefits:
- Expert telephony partner on hand to guide and support Macfarlane Packaging through shifting technology landscape.
- Cost-effective, managed telephony solution, saving significant time and money.
- Single point of contact across ALL telephony, taking away the hassle of managing multiple suppliers.
As a trusted partner / supplier DV02 continues to work with Macfarlane Packaging to evolve their systems and have recently successfully contracted Macfarlane Packaging’s 300+ mobile estate and started the migration to VoIP by implementing a hosted IP telephony platform in their data centre.
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