Presto Foods Prospers with Avaya¿
IP Office Solution
 

Presto Foods, a distributor of pizza and other specialty food products, prides itself on growing a small, family-run business into a regional presence in food service, while maintaining the highest quality of service that people expect from a family-owned and operated business. To maintain excellence, Presto trusts Avaya¿ Office solution to keep its three offices connected, ensuring quick and effective order entry, processing and distribution.

Presto Foods began as a single location food service business, bought and run by the Weeda family with the help of approximately 35 employees. Business boomed and Presto soon acquired two other businesses with locations.

The Business Challenge

As the operation expanded and additional enterprises came into the Presto Foods family, the management team recognized the need to upgrade its current network and phone systems, which had become outdated and were no longer able to adequately handle the load of three separate locations.

Prior to the upgrade, Presto’s headquarters was using the Avaya MERLIN LEGEND® system for its voice traffic, and a T1 line for its data communications needs. Other facilities, however, were using competing Panasonic and Nortel phone systems that did not integrate with the MERLIN LEGEND system, and were dialing into the main network.

The result? Inter-office communication was difficult, as phone extensions were separate and transfers from office-to-office were not possible. The former network systems were barely able to run Unix successfully; day-to-day operations were compromised. Systems crashed, leaving an entire branch without computers, printers, faxes, and sometimes without phones.

“Our order entry and distribution system was down regularly, up to twice per week,” explains Dewey Weeda, Presto’s general manager. “Productivity suffered, and something had to change.”

Beyond operational challenges, the separate phone systems didn’t allow for company cohesion. The three offices comprised a company of strangers who did not know one another well enough to bond and create a single business entity. So Weeda, son of Presto founder Phil Weeda, Sr., began the search for a new system to handle all of the business’s voice and data needs with a single solution.

“Being a small business, we don’t have an IT Department: I’m IT,” says Weeda. “So I wanted something easy to manage that would not be timeconsuming or be a distraction. I needed a system that would allow me to concentrate on other areas of my business.”

Weeda began an extensive product review and selection process, evaluating several systems that could suit his needs, including systems from Intel, 3Com, and Nortel.

“It was a frustrating, disappointing process,” recalls Weeda. “I’m not an extremely technical guy, and none of the vendors I contacted seemed to understand what I was trying to do—until I started looking at Avaya solutions. The Avaya representative understood exactly what I needed in a network, and what I hoped to do with the system in the future.”

The Solution

Based on the needs Weeda described, the rep recommended Avaya’s latest small to mid-sized business offer, the Avaya IP Office solution.

The IP Office solution offered Presto Foods the ability to converge its voice and data networks, using IP trunking to connect each location to the system. All of the computers, printers, fax machines and phones are connected via the IP Office solution, allowing complete assimilation of systems and processes across all three Presto Foods locations. An existing long-distance T1 line, formerly available only to employees in the corporate headquarters, is now used with two additional point-topoint T1s to join other locations to the IP endpoints, uniting the branch to the system.

Extension transfers between locations are now possible, and with the IP Office VoiceMail Pro software, all users can share a common messaging system regardless of their location. Order placement, processing and distribution through one central system is now available to all employees in any location. In addition, the Phone Manager software offers quick system management that is handled easily without the assistance of a technically-minded IT manager. Most importantly, the system can handle the current traffic volume of all three offices, while retaining room for future growth.

“While I’m only using primary, necessary features of the solution, I feel secure in the knowledge that the system will grow with my business,” says Weeda. “The more I learn about its functionality, the more features I can implement to enhance the way we do business."

The benefits of switching to the IP Office solution have been tremendous. Presto Foods is currently saving approximately $0.02 per minute because all long-distance service is now routed over the preexisting T1 line deployed in Presto’s headquarters. In addition, the number of necessary local phone lines has decreased, because employees can access the T1 through the IP office system, saving Presto Foods approximately $50 to $75 per month, per line. With its previous system, Presto needed approximately one dozen local phone lines per branch. Now, each of the three locations needs only three local lines, significantly cutting local phone provider costs.

Productivity has also been enhanced as a result of the IP Office system implementation. Day-to-day operations run smoothly, with computers, phones, and fax machines all connected to the IP Office system, which has proven to be more reliable with less downtime than the previous system. The absence of downtime has also decreased the amount of after-hours and overtime management had to put in finding work-arounds for problems resulting from an erratic phone system.

Weeda was surprised by one of the best, though unexpected, benefits of his Avaya IP Office system implementation.

“Before bringing in the new system, we were a company of strangers,” says Weeda. “There was little connection between employees in different offices, simply because ‘connecting’ with one another—whether by phone, fax or email—was such an arduous task. But with the IP Office, it’s easier to transfer calls to employees in other buildings, simply by dialing their extensions. Likewise, the system uptime makes faxes and email quick and simple. Our team members in other branches are better connected to one another, and as a company, we all know each other a lot better. These improved relationships translate to greater productivity for Presto Foods and improved responsiveness to our customers."

Overall, Presto’s experience with the Avaya IP Office solution has been a success. The system has solved all of the company’s current business challenges, while providing room for future growth and technological expansion in an easy-to-use, cost-efficient small- to mid-sized business solution.

“Everyone’s biggest concern was how the implementation affected my business,” said Weeda. “And they went out of the way to ensure minimal disruption to daily operations and maximum returns for my business.”

And Presto couldn’t be happier with Avaya’s IP Office solution.

“Who better to buy next generation technology from than the people who pioneered the last generation?” states Weeda. “Go with those who have the experience, who you can trust . . . Avaya.”


To find out how CTI can provide Avaya solutions for your particular business challenges, call us at 1-888-477-4CTI.

CTI will even provide a free ROI (Return on Investment) analysis based upon your individual needs.

Goal To maintain excellence, Presto needed a solution to keep its three offices connected, ensuring quick and effective order entry, processing and distribution. Solution * Avaya IP Telephony Solution * Converged Voice and Data Networks * Customer Relationship Management * Unified Communications Results $50-$75 savings per month, per line. Consistent, branded customer experience. Intelligent, Personalized interactions with customers. Faster linkage of people, process, and resource.