Improve Group Protects Proprietary Data in the Field with ViewPoint Mobile

Improve Group

Background

Advancements in mobile communications technology  have made a profound and irreversible impact on almost all businesses that rely on the road warrior for sales, technical support, service, customer support and other job responsibilities that keep the enterprise humming. But while the productivity  and efficiency benefits of mobile communications are undeniable, mobility  brings with it a number of challenges in the management of personnel and data that are outside the typical office domain.

This was exactly the dilemma faced by Improve Group, which provides a wide range of customized storage and access products for the government, health care, education and not-for-profit sectors. Improve Group relies on its remote sales force to relay  specs and job orders back to its teams of designers, consultants, production managers and data experts in the company ’s main office. However, there was very little visibility  into the mechanics of a conversation between its sales staff and a customer when the call was conducted from an employee’s personal mobile device.

“Because the technology was so limited, we had no idea if there were subsequent conversations between the salesperson and customer, how long the conversations were, or if other team members were conferenced into the call,” said Shane Massey, a network administrator and systems analyst with Improve Group. “While existing PBX call forwarding features certainly provided the connectivity to the staff in the field, our company was often left in the dark to understand how these conversations affected our business. From a management perspective, that’s a very bad place to be.”

Improve Group also had no way of safeguarding important business information, such as customer contact numbers, if it resided on the user’s device. “We had instances where salespeople left for competitors and took the contact information of our customers with them, mainly because those phone numbers were only saved on the salesperson’s mobile phone. We needed to find a way to protect vital proprietary information like that.”

Solution

They found a way, Massey said, with the Wave ViewPoint Mobile enterprise mobility solution from Vertical Communications. Designed and developed to replicate Vertical’s Wave IP unified communications system, ViewPoint Mobile extends the Wave’s full feature set and functionality directly to users in the field. With ViewPoint Mobile loaded onto their personal iPhones or company issued iPads, Improve Group’s salespeople now have immediate access to all of the powerful features within its own Wave IP system.

Unlike competing enterprise mobility offerings, ViewPoint Mobile is native to the Wave IP platform and does not require any additional hardware, software or licensing. Deployment is simple. Mobility features are turned on with a simple permission and instantly delivered to every user throughout the enterprise.

ViewPoint Mobile gives Improve Group’s mobile users the same access to features and corporate resources that they would have in the office. Not only is there a seamless transfer of voice calls between Wave IP and mobile phones, users have immediate access to features such as instant messaging, presence capabilities, conferencing, voice mail, call recording and business-specific applications. With ViewPoint Mobile integrated directly into the Wave IP system, it also enables Improve Group to secure any proprietary information residing on a user’s device.

ViewPoint Mobile also provides a broad range of back-office features that aid in the tracking and management of business activities. All enterprise communications are handled through the server, so inbound and outgoing calls, IMs, and other communications are captured and stored on the premise-based Wave IP server. Detailed call records provide a wealth of information regarding the frequency and quantity of contacts with customers, conference call participants, and a method to track important customer interaction metrics.

Results

“ViewPoint Mobile is really giving our company a tremendous competitive advantage,” says Massey. “In many instances, our company is competing not just on products, but also on the speed in which we can provide product to the customer. The IM feature enables our sales team to communicate with project managers in real-time. They can go over job specs and work out the details for a proposal instantly, regardless of location. Oftentimes, we are able to turn around a proposal within hours, where it may take our competitors days. This is proving to be a tremendous asset for winning business.

“ViewPoint Mobile has been a welcome addition by our staff, both inside and out of the office,” summarizes Massey. “It is a great resource that has made a dramatic impact on our organization, and has far exceeded our expectations.”