The Problem
Realty Executives International (Realty Execs) had a very expensive and antiquated phone system consisting of 12 individual PBX systems. Major problems caused by this outdated setup included: high maintenance costs, lack of extension-to-extension dialing, extremely limited unified communications options, and expensive local and long-distance charges.
Our Solution
Crexendo®’s solution incorporated 430 phones into Crexendo®’s Cloud-hosted platform. Upon doing so, Realty Execs saw the immediate elimination of all maintenance fees, the ability to make extension-to-extension calls across offices, access to a wide variety of modern Unified Communications options, and tremendous cost-savings from the elimination of their local dial tone and long distance.
Cost Savings
Extension-to-Extension dialing
Unified Communications options
No long distance fees
Digging-in: Large International Real Estate Firm Switches to Crexendo® for World-Class Unified Communications Options at Half the Cost of PBX
Realty Executives International (Realty Execs) in an industry-leading residential company located in 27 countries worldwide. For a company of this stature, maintaining an IT infrastructure that creates productivity across the franchise system is paramount to consistency and growth. One area of concern for the company was its antiquated phone system which was rigid, expensive to maintain, and lacked many modern Unified Communications options.
Since switching to Crexendo®, Realty Execs now has a Cloud-hosted phone system that is flexible, feature-rich, and has eliminated the need for their traditional on-premise PBX systems. The switch to Crexendo® has saved the company between 45% and 50% off its monthly phone bill.
Expensive and Rigid
Realty Execs’ telephony problems were the result of heavy reliance on complicated and outdated technology; namely 12 disparate PBX systems from a variety of providers. The 12 PBX systems were of various makes and models, each operating independently and utilizing expensive hardware. The five most serious problems caused by these legacy systems included:
- High maintenance costs- Besides the already expensive standard monthly maintenance charges, every time that one of the company’s 12 PBX systems required to repair, a third-party PBX repair specialist had to be called out, often costing Realty Execs several hundreds of dollars per service call.
- Lack of Extension-to-Extension dialing across offices- Due to each of the 12 offices being on independent PBX’s, Extension-to-Extension Dialing was not possible. Without inter-office dialing capabilities, employees were forced to dial the entire 10-digit phone number; an inconvenience not experienced by businesses with modern Cloud-hosted phone systems.
- An excessive number of DID’s- Without the ability to manage the entire phone system from a single portal, it was very difficult for the company to keep track of all of their direct inbound phone numbers (DirectInward-Dial phone numbers are DIDs). By the time Crexendo®’s team was called upon to analyze Realty Execs’ phone system, it was discovered that their DIDs were grossly mismanaged and that the company was paying for hundreds of DIDs it did not even utilize.
- Limited Unified Communications options- Realty Execs’ antiquated phone system lacked many modern telephony features, causing employees and agents to have very few options to choose from beyond Call Forwarding and traditional Desktop Voicemail.
- 5) Extremely high long-distance charges and local dial tone charges-Every month Realty Execs was faced with an extensive long-distance and local dial tone bill. If that wasn’t bad enough, any long distance charges accrued using the company’s phone system had to be manually sorted using codes and charged to individual agents each and every month. It was a painful process and a drain on the accounting team. “We spend an inordinate amount of time each month just figuring out long-distance fees,” says Rich Rector, CEO of Realty Executives International.
A Carefully Devised Solution
In a collective effort, the engineering team at Crexendo® devised a plan which addressed the challenges and limitations the company had with their current telephone solution. The plan was to replace their current telephony solution and move Realty Execs to the Crexendo® Cloud solution. This offered expanded features at half the cost of what they were currently paying with zero upfront out-of-pocket capital expense.
Executing Crexendo®’s Plan
The first step involved identifying the needs of the company and using this information to create a road-map to deploy the exact list of telephony features required. Every aspect of their communications was reviewed including geographic locations, usage requirements, and bandwidth capabilities, feature functionality, and end-user needs.
The second step in transitioning the company to Crexendo®’s Cloud-hosted phone system involved expanding the company’s bandwidth to handle the transition of all 12 offices from their outdated PBX system to the new Crexendo® platform. This step was an important part of the planning process as choosing the correct bandwidth is critical in order to support optimal call quality.
Once the adjustments to the business’ bandwidth were made, the phone lines were transitioned over from the traditional PBX system to the Cloud-based phone system. No downtime was experienced during the transfer to Crexendo®’s Cloud-hosted telephony platform. The transition was done in phases after office hours to ensure no inconvenience to Realty Exes. The successful porting of all numbers ensured that every Realty Execs agent and employee was able to keep their original phone number.
The final step in executing the transition was to set up the online portal. This process enabled Realty Execs’ IT team to manage their entire Cloud-hosted telephone system from one central location. The Admin Portal now allows the company’s IT department to assign and reassign extensions, set call routing, enable various telephony features like Voice-mail-to-Email, Find-Me-Follow-Me, etc., as well as other administrative functions.
Results
From the moment that Realty Executives International moved its phone lines onto the Crexendo® platform, the company found immediate relief from the heartache caused by its former outdated phone system in the following ways:
- Elimination of maintenance costs. With a new phone system powered by the Cloud, there was no longer a need for expensive on-premise PBX systems which had to be regularly overseen and maintained. In addition, expensive recurring costs for things like dial tone fees and long-distance fees have all been eliminated.
- Full scalability. Realty Exec’s fully-customized online portal allows the company to make adjustments to its own network’s extensions without having to call a third-party specialist. Plus, every time that the company needs to add a new phone they can simply contact Crexendo® and have one delivered straight to their office completely “Plug-&-Talk” ready. A Sensible Decision Months after switching to Crexendo®’s Cloud-hosted phone system, Realty Execs’ CEO Rich Rector is not only very satisfied with the level of service and quality of the solution that the company has received, he is now endorsing Crexendo®’s phone platform as Realty Executives International’s preferred telephony solution. “I can stand before franchisees and tell them that the Crexendo®’s Cloud-Telephone System is a cost-effective service that is scalable and can grow with their business. For our corporate offices, the savings amounted to 45%-50% over the previous system. Choosing Crexendo® just makes sense.” – Rich Rector, CEO, Realty Executives International
- Unified Communication options and modern telephony features. After the implementation of the Crexendo® Cloud-hosted phone system, a wide variety of efficient features to stay connected became available (e.g. Voice-mail-to-Email, Find-Me-Follow-Me, routing rules, etc.) The company gained a phone system complete with modern telephony features (e.g. Record a call, inter-office dialing, etc.), all on a single system with one, easy-to-read monthly bill.
- No more long-distance charges. A major perk to being on Crexendo®’s Cloud-hosted phone system is the elimination of domestic long distance charges within the US and Canada. Not only is this a benefit for the international franchisees in terms of cost savings, but this also allows the company’s main accounting department to efficiently track and pay a single monthly phone bill without the need to sort through long lists of individual agents’ billing codes.
- Disaster Recovery. One particular feature Crexendo®’s hosted communications provided that was especially helpful was disaster recovery. One of the Realty Execs’ offices experienced a flood and Realty Execs was able to continue operating with no telecommunications downtime. With great business continuity, the heavy damage to one local office did not pose any issue to productivity as the office’s phone system was simply plugged into another office’s internet connection and business was continued as usual. All these features and more are provided to Realty Execs at no extra cost to their monthly fee.
A Sensible Decision
Months after switching to Crexendo®’s Cloud-hosted phone system, Realty Execs’ CEO Rich Rector is not only very satisfied with the level of service and quality of the solution that the company has received, he is now endorsing Crexendo®’s phone platform as Realty Executives International’s preferred telephony solution. “I can stand before franchisees and tell them that the Crexendo®’s Cloud-Telephone System is a cost-effective service that is scalable and can grow with their business. For our corporate offices, the savings amounted to 45%-50% over the previous system. Choosing Crexendo® just makes sense.” – Rich Rector, CEO, Realty Executives International
“After one of our offices experienced a flood, we simply plugged its phones into another office’s connection. Business was continued as usual without our clients even knowing about it.”
Rich Rector, CEO
