How VoIPstudio helped Fashion One network increase productivity by 60%

Industry

Media & Broadcasting

Company Size

100-250 Employees

Headquarters

New York City, United States

Founded

2010

About

The Fashion One television channel launched in April 2010 and now distributes programmes to over 120 countries and for 120 million viewers worldwide. The channel broadcasts 24/7 on a wide range of topics related to fashion and lifestyle and across multiple platforms including satellite and cable television, on the internet, through mobile devices and smart TVs.

The Challenge

Fashion One operates out of 19 offices across 15 countries in Asia, the Americas and Europe. Many of the production staff follow fashion events around the world and are almost constantly on the move. The fashion industry is all about making the right impression, of course, and communications play a key role in building the channel’s brand.

From launch, Fashion One had been using traditional PBX telecoms solutions in each of the 15 countries where it had an office. This created a myriad of different bills – because there were often two or more accounts at each office for incoming and outgoing landline calls plus mobiles. These bills from traditional telecoms providers came at different times, in five or six currencies, and of course, the prices for each could fluctuate at any time. This made monitoring and controlling telecoms costs extremely difficult and time-consuming for the accounts teams.

IT staff were needed to set up handsets for new users and physically reconfigure set-ups whenever changes were needed, and this required liaison with more than 15 different help desks around the world, speaking a wide range of languages and all in different time zones.

Fashion One tried a VoIP solution from a well-known provider, but the service proved inefficient, as it was designed mainly for residential customers rather than businesses and could not properly support Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. This meant all calls were routed through receptionists, which created bottlenecks at busy times and severely impacted performance

The Solution

By moving to VoIPstudio, Fashion One was able to eliminate the need for traditional fixed line PBX accounts in all of its offices and mobile phone contracts. At a stroke, dozens of bills and 838 telephone numbers were consolidated into one account that provided simplified billing that was easy to manage and control.

All the channel’s numbers, from the traditional and VoIP providers, were ported to VoIPstudio for a single, unified communications solution.

IT staff no longer need to be physically present to set up and reconfigure phones. Because VoIPstudio uses a central provisioning server, everything is managed through a central online control panel.

The channel has set up more than 50 IVR systems – recording customised menus using its own actors, production expertise and broadcasting equipment to create a slick and highly professional impression. All calls are now automatically routed to the right people, delivering improved customer service and eliminating the need for receptionists to route calls.

Staff worldwide can now call each other for free over the VoIPstudio network, while production teams can make and receive calls using VoIPstudio anywhere, there is Wi-Fi access.

It all comes down to ease of use and low cost.

VoIPstudio was chosen because of its customization potential and the simplicity of administering it. We have tried different players and even setup our own PABX locally. It all comes down to ease of use and low cost.

The Impact

Productivity has increased dramatically following the introduction of IVR, with the same number of staff able to handle 60% more calls.

One click configuration allows the business to scale rapidly, adding and removing users to meet the seasonal fluctuations, which are a way of life in the fashion industry.

Simplified billing has improved financial controls and saves a significant number of man-hours for the accounts team. The channel also benefits from a reliable system that delivers zero downtime and provides disaster recovery, with all telephone lines and extensions able to follow staff to a backup or failover site at a moment’s notice.