BACKGROUND
For almost eight decades, Puritan/Churchill has manufactured maintenance, industrial infection control, laundry, kitchen, and housekeeping chemicals. The company has corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with manufacturing sites in four other cities and sales offices throughout the country. In addition, a network of over 40 distributor partners throughout the United States helps maintain Puritan’s commitment to providing customers with top-quality products and service.

THE CHALLENGE
As Information Technology Manager, Mark Jewart not only oversees the complete processing of data on the mainframe, but he is also responsible for PC support, systems analysis, and design of any special programs or systems. “I’m pretty much responsible for any and all electronic products and hardware,” says Jewart. “When employees have a problem with anything they can plug in or run off a battery, they call me thinking I’ll know how to fix it.”

About a year ago, Puritan/Churchill had a telephone system that wasn’t meeting the company’s needs. “Here we were, trying to move into the 21st Century with innovative products and solutions in order to provide world class customer service to our customers, but our telecommunications system dated back to the prehistoric age,” says Jewart. With sales reps, customers, and vendors scattered throughout the states, the company needed a system to help everyone communicate effectively. “Our company relies on prompt and constant communication,” says Jewart. “With offices and customers throughout the United States and salespeople on the road, we were wasting a lot of time and money trying to keep everyone connected, and we weren’t able to provide the type of customer service we wanted.”

Jewart went to several vendors with a list of what the company needed. All the vendors came back with a list of many solutions. One vendor, Data/Voice Incorporated, in Atlanta, proposed a product that stood out as the perfect solution: CallXpress®, from AVST.

THE SOLUTION
CallXpress is a multi-application computer telephony server that provides voice and call processing, unified messaging, fax processing, and call center and customer service applications all seamlessly integrating in the Windows environment. Since CallXpress centralizes a company’s telecommunications, it provided exactly what Jewart was looking for. Plus, CallXpress is cost-effective because the package is so complete and efficient. According to Jewart, this year his company will have an annual savings of over $16,000 in telecommunications costs with the new system in place.

CallXpress offers voice mail paging, which is especially useful when a company has an outside sales force like Puritan/Churchill does. With voice mail paging, Puritan/Churchill’s customers only need to know their sales rep’s phone number to get any help they need. As soon as a customer leaves a detailed message, the sales rep is paged and can return the call immediately—providing active communication that leaves the customer satisfied and cuts down time and expense.

Desktop Message Manager gives users the ability to manage three types of messages from a single list. At a glance you can see if you have e-mail, voice mail, or even faxes waiting. At the desktop, you can view e-mails or faxes, print them to your printer, or forward them to another voice mailbox. And if you’re not at your desk, CallXpress provides the same level of flexibility in managing all three message types from your phone. With a single phone call you can access e-mail and retrieve phone or fax messages.

One of Jewart’s favorite features is the RightFax fax server. With enhanced fax functionality, RightFax provides more versatility and options than other fax solutions. RightFax lets employees know when they have faxes. Then they have the option of reading, forwarding, or printing the fax to any printer or fax machine. The server also offers telephone access to fax messages, a feature that’s unavailable in any other fax server. Jewart especially likes that no matter where he is, he can forward a fax to the nearest fax machine or send copies of his fax to several people at once.

As IT Manager, Jewart has hundreds of responsibilities, and keeping up communications is at the top of the list. With CallXpress, Jewart knows he has found the perfect solution for keeping his company in touch. “We are thrilled with the CallXpress product,” says Jewart. “At Puritan/Churchill, we’re pushing to be a world-class service company that’s one step into the future. CallXpress is definitely a major contributor in bringing us nearer to our goals.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (“AVST”) is a leader in the unified communications (“UC”) marketplace uniquely combining the strengths of its world-class messaging platform, CallXpress®, with its speech-enabled call management module, Seneca™, to create a powerful, next-generation unified communications solution. The Company’s products are designed to scale and support organizations of all sizes. For more information please contact us at: www.avst.com or +1.949.699.2300.