Vodafone Wireless Office
With its 60-strong team of staff and players, the Waikato Rugby Union (WRU) is a leading-edge entertainment organisation. Its primary role is to foster rugby throughout the Waikato region. The WRU's main business activities include providing entertainment and sponsorship opportunities. Based in Hamilton, its flagship team is the first winner of the highly coveted Air New Zealand Cup.
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The Waikato Rugby Union needed an integrated communications system that would lift business productivity, and allow employees to stay in touch – in real time – regardless of where they were in the world.
Vodafone's Wireless Office solution proved the perfect fit for an organisation constantly on the go. The WRU now enjoys a distinct competitive advantage, thanks to totally fluid communications. Employees can converse quickly and efficiently with each other and with key stakeholders such as sponsors, the media and suppliers. Productivity has risen noticeably, while the overall cost of telecommunications has dropped by an impressive 26%, saving thousands every month.
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Empowering staff
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Vodafone Wireless Office
With its 60-strong team of staff and players, the Waikato Rugby Union (WRU) is a leading-edge entertainment organisation. Its primary role is to foster rugby throughout the Waikato region. The WRU's main business activities include providing entertainment and sponsorship opportunities. Based in Hamilton, its flagship team is the first winner of the highly coveted Air New Zealand Cup.
Download a PDF of this case study
Waikato Rugby Union is the backbone behind one of New Zealand's most successful rugby teams. But along with their sporting triumphs came off-field communication challenges that weren't quite so easy to tackle.
The increasingly mobile nature of the business meant players and staff members were often difficult to get hold of. Huge backlogs of emails and phone messages were commonplace.
“Our main function is to successfully manage our many stakeholders including our players, sponsors, suppliers and the media,” says Gary Dawson, Chief Executive Officer of the WRU.
“When calls to our fixed line desktop phones went constantly unanswered and those stakeholders became frequently frustrated at playing phone tag with us, things had to change.”
Additionally, the fact that management received three to four times more emails than phone calls was a real issue. As they were frequently away from their desks, it was hindering their ability to manage day-to-day business.
To top it off, WRU's total cost of communications needed reining in. Landline-to-mobile costs were becoming unacceptably high, and it was apparent that money was being wasted through duplicate voice infrastructure.
The overall situation was far from perfect. Yet, resolving these issues through an effective telecommunications infrastructure clearly presented an opportunity to improve productivity and drive down costs. Which was why WRU turned to Vodafone for a solution.
When Vodafone's Regional Sales Manager, Graham Mearns, was assigned to the Waikato Rugby Union, he got straight to work. Graham worked closely with the WRU to understand their situation in depth. After a series of meetings and whiteboard sessions, it looked like Vodafone's Wireless Office would be the way to go.
Graham then set about creating a tailor-made solution using a structured four-step process. Following this proven approach would allow the WRU to see the proposed benefits and productivity gains, and costs involved – as well as expected cost savings. A detailed plan would also ensure a smooth transition, with minimal disruptions to business and no adverse impact on customers. The steps included:
The first, and perhaps most important, task was to accurately identify the different working patterns of WRU's employees. Staff were profiled into four categories:
Different working styles were then matched with appropriate devices, levels of access, services and support. The next step was to provide a Total Cost of Ownership Analysis. This enabled WRU to assess direct and indirect costs and benefits of the project, including anticipated savings and productivity gains. It also helped clarify savings from hidden costs associated with redundant architecture.
Finally, a tour of Vodafone's v-nue, a living demonstration of Wireless Office, was more than enough to convince the WRU that this was the right path for them.
Once the green light was given, the solution was implemented – and the WRU has never looked back. Dawson says the Vodafone Wireless Office has surpassed all expectations, with widespread benefits enjoyed by both WRU employees and customers.
“The key to our organisation is our ability to communicate in real-time with all kinds of people in all kinds of places and the Wireless Office solution has empowered us with the tools to achieve that, giving us a massive competitive edge,” comments Dawson. Without doubt, the organisation is now communicating more effectively than ever, and productivity levels are well up.
“I've become its biggest advocate, even giving tours through our office. You can't get a bigger endorsement than that.”
There was more good news in the numbers. The WRU have realised a sizeable 26% drop in overall communication costs. As Dawson acknowledges, “The cost savings are obviously a key benefit”.
Key to WRU's Wireless Office solution was Vodafone talkZone, which was also responsible for the bulk of the WRU's savings. Initially, their PBX system was upgraded and integrated with three Ericsson Cellular Trunking Units (CTUs). These were then linked with Integrated talkZone, and combined with a talkZoneZero rate plan.
This meant that mobile calls were free between WRU employees, players and anyone else on the Vodafone network – eliminating the need for toll calls. The most notable and immediate saving here was keeping in touch with their teams travelling the country.
Another area of note was field staff. The affordability of talkZone, and the fact that DDIs were routed to mobile phones, allowed for the removal of field staff desk phones – effectively removing duplicate infrastructure.
talkZoneZero also heralded some unexpected benefits for the teams. “With new players joining the team each season it can be challenging for new members to feel able to contribute and speak up as much as players who have been with the team for a number of years,” says Dawson. “But talkZoneZero has helped remove barriers and allowed new players to blend with the old by communicating more fluidly with each other.”
WRU's Wireless Office also included a mix of devices and business services that helped employees cut ties with the traditional office desk environment. By replacing desk phones with mobiles wherever possible, staff only had to manage one voicemail, saving time and effort. This was also a positive for customers, who were ensured a faster response, without the need to leave multiple messages.
Executive and managerial staff received BlackBerry handhelds, allowing them to send and receive emails wirelessly, wherever they happened to be in New Zealand and abroad. The BlackBerry handhelds also offered comprehensive calendar and task management applications, which meant they could keep track of appointments with less reliance on laptops, or traditional paper diaries.
The Vodafone Mobile Connect (VMC) data card has been another invaluable addition. An important role of management is to capture player data about player performance, to help them stay ahead of their game. Player training could happen anywhere across New Zealand, or even overseas So VMC provided a fast and efficient new way, via wireless internet, to relay vital information, such as player heart rates, blood pressure and VO2 levels, to their data analysis agency in Dunedin.
Real-time access to player information also enabled coaching staff to fine tune training programmes on the spot, ensuring peak performance.
To complement WRU's new wireless devices, two Vodafone business services were added to the mix. The first was aangel, an invaluable messaging service. With a single phone call, employees could record tasks, contacts and appointments for themselves. Aangel would then transcribe the voice message into text and return the information to the sender via TXT and email. As WRU field staff will attest, aangel can certainly make life easier on the road.
The other Vodafone service that has quickly found favour with the organisation is Web2TXT. This allows a TXT message to be sent to one or more mobiles from the convenience of a desktop computer or laptop. Web2TXT is a particularly efficient way to keep team players informed, wherever they happen to be.
The icing on the cake for WRU, was Vodafone roaming. This simply meant that the benefits of the Wireless Office could be extended to over 100 countries worldwide. Teams regularly travel overseas, and keeping in touch with players and coaching staff has proven a challenge in the past. But now, with international roaming, it's as though the guys haven't even left the country – it's that seamless.
Home or away, it's clear that Vodafone Wireless Office has been an invaluable addition to the Waikato Rugby Union's game plan.
With Integrated talkZone people no longer need a landline and a mobile phone. They just have their mobile, connected as if on a mobile PBX. They can communicate with clients and colleagues any place, any time, on one device, whether they're in or out of the office. They can also be reached any time, any place - and instead of calling a location where you think they may be, you just call their mobile extension.
The increase in employee responsiveness and productivity, and the time saved on telephone tag, can be astonishing.
Free your people from their desks
PBX telephone systems tie you and your people to a single fixed location: the desk. Integrated talkZone cuts the cord, and sets you free. It's a simple mobile solution with added network-based functionality that lets people manage their telecommunications from a single mobile device.
If you have a mix of mobile and fixed workers, Integrated talkZone can integrate with your existing PBX telephone system, giving you the best of both worlds: mobile workers replace their landlines with an Integrated talkZone extension, while fixed location workers stay with traditional desk extensions.
How it works
Setting up WRU's Integrated talkZone first involved installing an Ericsson Cellular Trunking Unit (CTU) onto their existing PBX telephone system, providing two dedicated voice channels to the Vodafone mobile network. This allowed desk phone users to call employees on mobiles at the talkZone rate of 0c. The CTUs also allowed mobile users out in the field to call back into the telephone system, and to contact any of the WRU desk phone users at the talkZone zero rate.
WRU staff that only have mobile phones are also allocated an internal extension number and an external Direct Dial In (DDI) on the telephone system. This allows WRU desk phone users to contact them by simply dialing an extension number. Furthermore, external callers can contact WRU staff on mobiles by dialing their DDI number – and avoiding the cost of a land-to-mobile call (up to 70c per minute).
Integrated talkZone, combined with a talkZoneZero rate plan, helped eliminate a huge amount of landline toll calls for the WRU. It was largely responsible for the 26% reduction in overall communication costs. Furthermore, Integrated talkZone meant that the WRU were able to cut back on duplicate infrastructure, by removing desk phones for staff that had mobiles.
Most people who haven't experienced BlackBerry think of it as a tool for managing email on the move. While that's true, it's only part of the story.
With BlackBerry, you can deal with your email anywhere, anytime. As soon as it's received on your organisation's email server, it's pushed out to your BlackBerry. You can read your messages. Reply to them. Forward them with comments. Delete them. File them in appropriate folders.
Powerful application development tools also allow BlackBerry to connect to your organisation's databases and internal applications, enabling you to access or update data wherever you are. So you're always in touch, and have at your fingertips the information you need to make decisions.
BlackBerry handhelds allow staff to work more efficiently and productively away from the office. The ability to access emails and manage tasks and appointments wirelessly reduced their reliance on traditional desktop-based technology.
Whitepapers:
Ipsos Reid - an independent ROI analysis for the BlackBerry (PDF, 589 KB)
BlackBerry Enterprise Solution Technical Overview (PDF, 506 KB)
VMC is a wireless PC card that connects to your laptop, so there's no need to connect your modem to the nearest phone line to get online.
VMC is all about lifting productivity by giving you access to the information you need, wherever and whenever you need it.
Within New Zealand, VMC, powered by 3G, can use both our new 3G broadband and our 3G and GPRS networks, and can switch between the three seamlessly.
Fast data speeds
Vodafone 3G provides businesses with fast data speeds - up to
3.2 Mbps in 3G coverage areas. That's over 50 times faster
than dial-up and about eight times faster than current 3G
speeds. With
faster speed, businesses can complete many tasks more quickly,
such as downloading emails, browsing the internet and accessing business
applications such as CRM systems, stock ordering systems,
databases, shared files and folders, sales brochures and so on. With
VMC and the speed of Vodafone 3G Broadband you can:
VMC is just one of many laptop connectivity options. We have a range of devices that support laptop connectivity.
Here, there and everywhere
Internationally, VMC can be used wherever Vodafone has data roaming agreements. That's currently 30 countries, including the most popular destinations like Australia, the USA, the UK, Hong Kong and Japan. This is because Vodafone uses GSM, the most popular standard for mobile services in the world.
Have you ever had a flash of brilliance in the middle of doing something else, and then, when you've tried to remember it later, it's gone? Or verbally agreed to a meeting – again, while doing something else – and forgotten to write it in your scheduler later?
aangel is perfect for remembering appointments, numbers or birthdays, adding tasks to your 'to do' list or capturing that vital thought or message. And if you use organiser software like Outlook® or Entourage®, it's even easier. aangel will automatically add events to your calendar, contacts to your address book and tasks to your to do list.
To capture a thought or message you simply call 808 on your mobile and use your voice to record a message. Almost immediately, your message will be transcribed and returned via TXT to your mobile and/or emailed directly to your inbox.
The aangel messaging service had a positive effect on the WRU employees managing their day-to-day tasks. It gave them the perfect way to keep on top of appointments and record fleeting ideas on the road, or at other times of inconvenience.
Business web2TXT is an online TXTing system. So instead of thumbing in your message, you log in to our website, type your TXT, select one or more names from your online address book, and hit send. In seconds, all your recipients' mobiles will beep, and your TXT will suddenly be in their message inbox and will be at the top of their list of things to do.
You don't need any software or special equipment. It costs nothing to sign up for the service. And it doesn't tie up your mobile - in fact it doesn't even need to be you doing the typing and sending. You can delegate the job to someone else, and they can do it even if you and your mobile are away from the office.
Being able to send TXTs fast really opens the door to more efficient ways to work:
Business web2TXT has other advantages over your mobile as well:
Any replies to TXTs sent from Business web2TXT go directly to your mobile, so even if you have delegated the sending, you still receive the responses (like cancelled appointments or other changes of plans).
Business web2TXT proved an ideal means for WRU management to get short messages to their employees out in the field. It has found particular favour with coaching staff, keeping team players informed, quickly and efficiently – regardless of their location.
Many people simply don't have the time to get to grips with all the functionality of their mobile phone or data device, not to mention the added services that are available. Consequently, they often don't get maximum benefit from their new device.
That's where Mobile Mentor™ comes in. A Mobile Mentor is a person who can show you how to make the most of your mobile technology, on site, at your premises. So you don't have to read bulky manuals, and you get full value from your device right away.
Mobile Mentor™ is available in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
