Each year, CAN/AM a provider of full-service hockey camp and tournament destination event packages, manages over 600 hockey youth teams equaling 26,000+ players including their family members.
Planning and carrying out each prestigious event involves responsibilities such as running marketing campaigns, managing team registrations, event sign-ups, scheduling, rostering, securing hotels and meals, and overseeing the event itself.
Identifying Service Continuity as Main Issue for Remote Employees
One of the main challenges faced by CAN/AM was that whenever their internet service went down at their Lake Geneva office in Wisconsin where their ShoreTel phone system was installed, remote employees who relied on access to the PBX were not able to make and receive calls until service was restored.
Concerned that they were not providing the best level of customer service for their clients due to these service interruptions, the company needed to find a solution that would remedy this issue once and for all.
“We pride ourselves on being the best hockey events company in the nation,” states Eric Chapman, Director at CAN/AM. “To maintain our high customer service standards, we have to make sure our employees can do their jobs and service our clients. Having a reliable connection for all our communications is an important part of meeting those standards.”
Chapman decided to seek consultation from Converged Technology Professionals, their local WI ShoreTel/Mitel Platinum partner who installed their first ShoreTel PBX and remained their IT support vendor throughout the years. “We needed to determine if it was worth paying several thousand dollars in upfront costs for a new PBX, or if we should look at other options that might be available, so I reached out to Converged for their advice,” comments Chapman.
“CAN/AM’s on-premise system was initially deployed nearly ten years ago at a time when hosted VoIP solutions for businesses were not as feature-filled and reliable as they are today,” explains Scott Dressel, Major Accounts Manager at CT-Pros. “For CAN/AM’s situation with remote workers who are frequently in direct communication with clients throughout the U.S. and Canada, we had to look at all different angles to determine the best course of action for solving their connectivity issues. Since a number of service renewals were about to come due, it was a wise decision to take the time do a full analysis and reassess their infrastructure sooner rather than later.”
"WE NEEDED TO DETERMINE IF IT WAS WORTH PAYING SEVERAL THOUSAND DOLLARS IN UPFRONT COSTS
FOR A NEW PBX, OR IF WE SHOULD LOOK AT OTHER OPTIONS THAT MIGHT BE AVAILABLE."
Eric Chapman, Director
CAN/AM
Migrating From On-premise to the Cloud Proves Painless
Transitioning over to the cloud platform was a seamless process, according to Chapman who was concerned that long-time employees familiar with the old phone system might have a difficult time with the adjustment. However, any changes due to the move were described by Chapman as somewhat insignificant stating that the new hosted system is very easy to use.
“Our business is about giving clients who attend our events an experience they will always treasure. We have to be able to communicate with local vendors, attendees, and each other to pull off a successful event. We can now do that with greater confidence,” states Chapman.
Mitel MiCloud Connect Improves Connectivity For Remote Employees
Using the hosted solution, each employee directly plugs into the internet to connect to CAN/AM’s phone system which resides on Mitel’s geo-redundant online servers. Since moving to the cloud, service up-time and reliability has greatly improved and employees can respond to callers without any service-incurred delays.
“Our biggest pain-point was not providing the service reliability our remote employees needed whether working from their home office organizing year-round events or on location at our summer camps,” explains Chapman. “Moving to the hosted platform simplified our connection issues by removing the dependency on the PBX located at our WI headquarters.”
“I CAN CONFIDENTLY SAY THAT OUR EMPLOYEES ARE HAPPY, OUR CUSTOMERS ARE HAPPY,
AND OUR FUTURE IS LOOKING VERY BRIGHT.”
Eric Chapman, Director
CAN/AM