SUCCESS STORY: LARRY H. MILLER DEALERSHIPS
Algo Communications Products Ltd.
Is a Canadian manufacturer of telecom endpoints and accessories.
The company boasts a 50-year history in the telecommunications business, providing intelligent, highly adaptable endpoints that include Powered over Ethernet (PoE) speakers, horns, paging adapters, strobes, push buttons, and doorphone/ intercoms.
Algo’s expertise proved essential when GoToConnect competed to win over the Larry H. Miller Dealership Group.
Challenge
When a Larry H. Miller dealership in Salt Lake City encountered a serious problem with its existing paging system that compromised its communications, they knew they needed a solution and turned to GoToConnect, formerly Jive, and Algo.
They had been testing their paging system, which was set up by another hosted provider.
When they ran into issues, they asked GoToConnect to come in and pitch a possible fix. They had Algo speakers, and since GoToConnect had worked on an integration with Algo.
GoToConnect reached out to Algo to help deliver the best possible alternative.
Solution
Paul Zoehner, Director of Product Development for Algo, flew out to inspect the dealership himself. “I met with the IT manager,” he said:
“GoToConnect had three or four people there at the same time. The manager said the speakers had poor sound quality. When I looked at them, I found that some other vendor had taken the system, which had a left and right stereo output, and tied those into some device.
That shorted out the left and right channels and was causing all sorts of distortion.“
In addition to solving the speaker problem, the GoToConnect/ Algo partnership helped Larry H. Miller to trim costs. Zoehner described how the GoToConnect/Algo integration enabled dealerships to save on their speakers.
“We found out the other vendor had registered every speaker back to itself. That’s a $10 to $15 charge per speaker for that dealership. The GoToConnect guys recognized right away that the first thing you can do is register one speaker back to GoToConnect, and then have that speaker multicast to all the others.”
Larry H. Miller was also able to preserve their infrastructure investment. Installing a paging system is a hefty investment for any dealership. But there’s more to it than just replacing phones. Zoehner said, “You rip out your old legacy private branch exchange (PBX), and it doesn’t just end there. There’s the paging system to consider as well.
Ripping that out adds even more cost. That’s why it helps to have a solution that integrates seamlessly between the existing system and the new phones.
The Algo and GoToConnect paging configuration also enables dealerships like Larry H. Miller to use their existing analog paging system and create a hybrid IP system. This provides flexibility and avoids a big capital investment.
Dealerships can update their system without needing additional configuration or hardware.
Finally, GoToConnect provided a unified communications solution, a major win for the dealership. Zoehner gave two reasons for why dealerships should opt for unifying their communications.
One, it frees up your employees.
Now you don’t have to be in a particular location with a microphone to initiate a page. You could be anywhere and use a softphone app on your phone and initiate a page or receive a notification.
Two, in a dealership, you might be sold one communication service, and then you sign up and pay another vendor for yet another service.
Unified Communications (UC) gives you a total solution, which is what puts GoToConnect in a stronger position than its
competitors. They offer that total solution.
Results between Algo and GoToConnect, the dealership soon had it’s speakers up and running. Zoehner said:
“This was a terrific opportunity for us to partner up with GoToConnect and solve those problems. That’s, I think, the value of this partnership. We can show up in force and prove that we can fix their problems.”
“GoToConnect is very aggressive in how it listens to customer needs and integrates ancillary features. They’re willing to install these solutions into situations where a lot of other vendors would not. Very few hosted providers engage customers like that. I wish they did.”
Paul Zoehner,
Director of Product Development, Algo Communications Products