“Objectworld UC Server®’s unified messaging blew me away. E-mail, voice mail and fax messaging were all-in-one. We wouldn’t have to add an adjunct system later and it was all from one software vendor. I was hooked.”
—Tom Wickersham, Chief Financial Officer, Roncelli Inc.

Leading midwest construction firm builds on track record for customer service with Objectworld UC Server® Standard Edition (formerly CallAttendant Office).

The Challenge

A construction firm with customers in the Fortune 500 and with many of metropolitan Detroit’s leading businesses undergoing steady growth, Roncelli needed a flexible unified communications solution to meet customer expectations for service.

The Solution

Deploy Objectworld UC Server in combination with an AVAYA® IP Office to replace an aging Nortel® system.

The Results

Increased customer service with direct inward dialing and call-routing using Objectworld UC Server’s unified communications capabilities. With Objectworld UC Server, employees can take customers’ calls whether at the head office or in the field at a construction site.

Roncelli Inc., a leading construction firm in the metropolitan Detroit area, Michigan, expertly builds massive structures such as automotive, industrial, hospitals, schools and cinemas. When Roncelli tripled the size of its head office two years ago, they decided to upgrade their phone system at the same time. However, as a family-owned and operated business, they needed a solution that they could implement easily and economically over a twelve-month period. With forty years of project management experience, Roncelli understood the importance of planning not only for their immediate phone system needs, but for their future needs as well.

Roncelli envisions a state-of-the-art unified communications solution.

In 2006, Roncelli planned a 20,000-square foot extension onto their 10,000-square foot head office. The increased real estate meant their existing phone system would need to scale to meet their needs, but their existing Nortel PBX couldn’t meet this challenge easily and couldn’t deliver the unified communications features Roncelli needed to meet their customer’s expectations for service.

“We have one IT manager, who reports to me, and I dabble a bit in technology,” explains Tom Wickersham, chief financial officer, Roncelli Inc. “We’d read about Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and while we weren’t ready to fully adopt VoIP technology, we agreed that we needed a VoIP-ready solution so that we weren’t limited in the future. We turned to the experts at Teoma Systems to help us with the many technology choices that lay ahead.”

Teoma Systems met with Tom to gain an appreciation for Roncelli’s phone system requirements, as well as learn about their existing infrastructure. The firm needed a phone system for their expanded new office space, and within a year after moving in, they would enable desktop productivity tools for their employees. “Talking with Tom, we learned that their project managers work out of trailers scattered across construction sites in the Midwest,” recalls Nicole Deleon, project manager, Teoma Systems. “Tom wanted mobile employees to be as productive at the construction site as they were in the office. He envisioned giving employees the tools to receive and send fax messages directly from their PCs.”

Teoma Systems looked at Roncelli’s existing infrastructure. Roncelli’s aging Nortel PBX wouldn’t achieve the company’s overall vision. There was no VoIP capability and no integration to the desktop — key for a firm that eventually wanted to provide employees with state-of-the-art, productivity enhancing tools from their PCs. And while Roncelli was using Microsoft Outlook®, they hadn’t deployed Microsoft Exchange® Server and didn’t plan to deploy Exchange simultaneously with a new phone system. “It was clear that, while Roncelli wasn’t ready to implement all technology straight away, they did have a very strong desire to ensure the solution they chose would easily and affordably make way for twenty-first century technology as they were ready,” says Nicole. “Bottom line: we needed a solution that could be implemented in stages to achieve Tom’s overall vision cost-effectively.”

Objectworld UC Server builds on an AVAYA® system to deliver a modern phone system for Roncelli.

Teoma Systems narrowed the options to only those that would achieve Roncelli’s goals. “I considered an AVAYA IP system and a Toshiba system at length,” recalls Tom. “There were quite a few voice mail applications that worked with AVAYA, including AVAYA’s own Voicemail Pro® application. Then Nicole demonstrated Objectworld UC Server. She told us, ‘You can install this product now, and when you’re ready to put in Exchange, you can integrate Objectworld UC Server to Exchange. Until that time, you can use the Objectworld UC Server client and it does all these wonderful things.’ Objectworld UC Server’s unified messaging blew me away. E-mail, voice mail and fax messaging were all-in-one. We wouldn’t have to add an adjunct system later and it was all from one software vendor. I was hooked.”

As Roncelli completed the 20,000-square foot expansion, Teoma Systems took out the old Nortel system and installed the AVAYA system, AVAYA handsets and Objectworld UC Server. All of Roncelli’s 90 head-office employees were setup with Objectworld UC Client™. “The installation was smoothly and professionally done by Teoma Systems,” says Tom. “They trained our IT manager, who, today, easily and quickly performs our day-to-day administration. Objectworld UC Server doesn’t need much maintenance. The interface is quite intuitive for a non-technical person to find his or her way around. In fact, I log in to Objectworld UC Server from time-to-time just to see what’s going on and to double-check on things. It’s so convenient — I log in right from my desktop.”

Unified messaging and unified communications build better customer service.

“Unified messaging was the big selling point for me,” says Tom. “We manage many customer relationships here. I immediately saw how we could improve customer service while at the same time increasing employee productivity. Unified messaging has definitely improved customer service. I respond much more quickly to the voice mails and faxes that I receive. The ability to have messages come to me automatically on one device saves so much time. I can scroll through, say, the 35 voice mails I see on the screen to find just the one I’m looking for and play it. I no longer forward voice mails from my phone because the keypad inputting takes too long. It’s far easier and faster to attach the .wav file to an e-mail and send it,” adds Tom.

Roncelli’s employees reiterate Tom’s sentiments. Because of the tight integration to Microsoft Outlook®, employees combine Outlook’s contacts capabilities with Objectworld UC Server’s Personal Auto-Attendant to route the flow of calls to their extensions. “We use direct inward dialing (DID) so employees easily and quickly create personalized greetings and messages based on the phone number that calls their direct number,” says Tom. “It gives us a professional image and the feature saves time for employees and their customers.”

Objectworld UC Server lays a solid foundation for growth.

When Roncelli is ready to implement Microsoft® Exchange Server®, Objectworld UC Server will integrate to Exchange, delivering unified messaging with no additional investment. “Our next priority is to roll out unified messaging to the entire company. In fact,” says Tom, “because they see how I’m managing my messages, a day doesn’t go by without someone asking me when they’ll be set up with unified messaging.”

“A year ago we developed our unified communications vision for the firm; yet, we knew realistically that we couldn’t do it all at once,” concludes Tom. “With the flexibility of Objectworld UC Server, and Teoma Systems’ expert guidance, we are able to implement our vision in a timeframe that suits our unique needs. We’ll achieve our end goal in the coming months when everyone is using Objectworld UC Server unified messaging. We are satisfied Objectworld UC Server will meet our needs for years to come.”

Roncelli, Teoma and Objectworld build a solution that’s built to last.

• Employees use Objectworld UC Server’s unified communications capabilities to improve customer service and deliver a professional image of Roncelli Inc.
• A single IT manager easily supports and maintains Objectworld UC Server for 90 employees.
• Long-term, Roncelli’s system delivers unified messaging, unified communications, communications-enabled business process, Text-to-Speech, and more, to deliver on unexpected communications challenges and to protect Roncelli’s investment as the company grows.