The Client

Tripp Ltd is the exclusive retailer of luggage in Debenhams via retail concessions. The head office is based in central London, with distribution in Doncaster. Tripp trade in excess of 100 Debenhams stores throughout the UK and Ireland. As well as their own brand luggage they stock all of the market leading brands including Jasper Conran and Samsonite. Tripp have over twenty years experience in the luggage industry, with a unique fresh approach to making travel enjoyable and worry free.

keeping the systems live during installation was a priority

The Job

The clients’ original remit was to integrate a small call centre for the customer service team into their current Panasonic S-ICX telephone system. Due to capacity issues and the cost of upgrading the head office system it was decided to go for a small stand alone system. It was then identified that this would be a false economy as the head office system would need to be upgraded in the next year or so in any event due to the growth Tripp where experiencing. It was at this stage that we were able to work on a solution with Henry Kisseh, Tripps IT Director at not only incorporating the call centre in a head office system upgrade but also integrating the 100 plus stores via an IP Network giving head office full control over the retail outlets. A Private broadband IP network had already been put in place by VODAT for data purposes and Henry was looking to maximize its potential and thus get a faster ROI. Call queuing both for admin calls and the call centre was also a priority. Finally Henry wanted us to provide a new cabinet and colour code system in Tripps server room as the current infrastructure was basically just a bundle of wires and totally unmanageable. The budget criteria was set at a maximum of £50,000

the systems were a lot neater after completion

The Solution

The system we proposed was the new Panasonic KX-TDA600 telephone system. The system comprised of an ISDN30 circuit, 160 IP extension ports, a Panasonic TVM 200 voicemail and OAK AI Office call logger. The call logger was to be key in helping Tripp maximise cost savings by identifying telephone abuse from the stores and bringing it to the attention of the regional managers straightaway instead of having to wait for telephone bills to be supplied. The call centre part of the system was to be supplied with Opal non-geographic numbers giving the call centre management access to online stats via the Opal web portal in addition to the Panasonic system live stats. Call queuing was to be handled within the Panasonic system via call queuing modules. After an initial trial where we hooked up a small Panasonic system with a couple of IP handsets in the HO and some IP extensions at Tripps local retail outlets Henry placed the order. Although not on the Private Broadband network it was decided that the regional Managers and company management also be provided with IP handsets in their homes. IB Networks worked with Henry in putting a secure VPN in place via the WWW so they too could be integrated to the telephone system. At the time and possibly still now this was to be the largest single order Panasonic had received based on IP extensions. IB Networks attributes of being a multi vendor supplier for hardware, software and carrier services meant we were able to select, in our view, the best solution to meet the clients’ requirement from some of the industries key suppliers

Client Comment

“Alan and his team were very helpful in meeting our “customer demands” in not only to supply state of the art equipment, but also our “unusual requirements” of locking down the handsets etc. From our initial discussion to our ever changing requirements IB Networks were patient and very understanding and came up with a solution every time.
The project was planned with military perfection and even though we had set aside 2 days to install the major equipment and “re-cable my computer cabinet”, we had by 8pm on the Saturday completed our goal.
As with any good company IB Networks have still been at hand to meet any other “left flank” request we have thought of and I am still thinking of something to stump them with.”

Supplier Comment

Congratulations to IBNetworks for installing one of the first KXTDA600 systems with an extensive number of IP handsets over a large number of sites. This convergence project was the largest IP solution installed during this period through Nimans with over 150 IP handsets located in 130 different sites. An excellent VOIP solution.