Introduction
XCV Accountants are an old established network of accountants operating out of 8 offices within the UK.
Tom Xavier – Managing Partner – writes:-
"We are proud of the speed and accuracy of the service which we can offer industry and commerce.
With the current financial climate we were looking for ways to save money and improve the service we can offer. When we saw the Birchills Telecom Connect system we could see it was a no brainer for us. Then when we saw the capped call charge structure and we knew it was right
Because our offices are fairly small, most only employ 5 or 6 people, we used to use Featureline from BT. But this is expensive, now feels old fashioned and of course in reality offers very little in the way of functionality.
Looking at the Birchills Telecom web site we calculated that our ongoing telephone costs would be reduced by 35% and of course all of the calls between our offices are free. We did spend a lot of money simply keeping ourselves up to speed. Because of the capped call structure our costs have actually fallen by 43%.
We had heard some bad things about Internet Telephony but when Richard from Birchills Telecom explained about how the guaranteed quality of service works we knew that we would be safe. There is simply no question that the telephone calls are better than using a traditional analogue system.
The system is configured so the head office has a main number which is manned by a secretary and each of the other offices has numbers where all of the phones ring until answered. Everyone had their own personal number (DDI) and if that number is dialled this is the only phone that rings. Every one has a voice mailbox. Whenever a voice mail was received an email is sent to the mail box owner.
Birchills Telecom configured all of this for us, so that all we had to do was plug the phone into our data network where we wanted it. When we were happy that everything was working we asked Birchills Telecom to port the existing numbers across and within a couple of days they were across and we could start using the new systems. Now when we want to change anything we log on to the Birchills Telecom web portal and simply make the changes. Some times though it is easier just to phone Birchills Telecom and they can make the changes for us whilst we are on the phone. This seems to make economic sense sometimes if the changes we want are a bit unusual. It is good to know that no matter how long we talk to Birchills Telecom the call is free because it is within their network.
Conference calls used to cost a lot, but now these are free. They are usually set up by the head office secretary. Sometimes especially when they are helping in the sale of a company XCV find the ability to record conversations on demand is a really useful addition to our tools.
The ability for partners to take their phones home and plug them into their home network now means that Partners can work from home but appear as though they are in the office. Sometimes when I forget to take it home I ask my secretary to configure calls to come through to my mobile. That’s where we see the biggest savings on the Birchills Telecom Business 500 Tariff which caps the cost of mobile calls.
We’ve also added some new telephone numbers to our systems so that we can look as if we are in local towns where in reality we have no presence
A cheaper service, with a lot more features which can be updated on demand, no depreciation and free calls to all of our offices that is brilliant."
Tom Xavier Managing Partner May 2009
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