Collection Agency Finds New Way to Recover Money Using 3Com's Networked Telephony Solution
Accounts Recovery Corp. to slash $45,000 monthly phone bill in half
with converged voice/data solution
VICTORIA, B.C. - December 12, 2001 - Accounts Recovery Corp., a nation-wide collection agency that acts for major banks and credit card companies in Canada, knows the value of money. So when Accounts Recovery learned it could reduce its annual telephone bill by more than $20,000 per month using an IP (Internet Protocol) telephony solution from 3Com, it didn't take much convincing.
Together with 3Com partner Glenbriar Technologies Inc. of Calgary, Accounts Recovery installed 3Com® SuperStack® 3 NBX® Networked Telephony solutions that are reaping financial and operational benefits right out of the box.
"Conservatively, we expect the system to pay for itself in a year, possibly less," said Joe Polard, vice president and assistant general manager of Accounts Recovery Corp. "Where the 3Com product really made a difference is on reducing long distance costs."
Accounts Recovery, with 250 employees in four offices across the country, realized that it could reduce its $45,000 monthly phone bill by switching from Centrex to a private telephone system and networking the phone systems in all of its offices. The Glenbriar/3Com proposal promised biggest savings and was 30 to 35 per cent less than the nearest traditional PBX (public switched) competitor.
Glenbriar linked local area networks (LANs) in Victoria and Vancouver using an IP-based LAN extension service from Telus that carries voice and data. Now branch-to-branch phone calls never leave the company's wide area network (WAN). Also, Accounts Recovery employees in Vancouver can reach anywhere in the Victoria office's local calling area for free, and vice versa. Already the company is saving $5,000-$6,000 a month in long distance charges. Savings will increase another $15,000-$16,000 as the remaining two offices are linked into the network.
Diversity and flexibility
Bruce Thompson, director of marketing for Glenbriar attributes much of the monthly savings indirectly to the SuperStack 3 NBXsolution's flexibility in supporting virtually all termination mediums. The network Glenbriar designed for Accounts Recovery includes 10-megabits-per-second fiber (E10), Primary Rate Interface (PRI), ISDN, DSL and analog connections.
"The beauty of the NBX system is that because of its simple administration and its architecture, it provides a myriad of choices for transmission media - without the need of using expensive routers and gateways," said Mr. Thompson. "And when you have more choices, you can generally negotiate a better position with carriers."
In Victoria and Vancouver, for example, Accounts Recovery was able to negotiate a reduction in local phone charges from $38 to $23 a month. Coupled with savings from pooling telephone lines - 170 employees in two offices now share about 65 lines instead of each having a Centrex line - the savings on local telephone charges come to about $5,000 a month.
Do-it-yourself moves, adds, and changes
Accounts Recovery also expects to save money by doing its own moves, adds and changes. "Compared to the software for the traditional PBX solutions it considered, the 3Com NBX system's Windows browser interface was a dream," said Mr. Polard. "When we saw it, we said, 'Wow, this is pretty slick.' It's so easy to use. One of the major downsides with Centrex is that when you want to move something, you have to call the service provider and it costs you each time. With the PBX, we would have run into the same thing. With the NBX, we can do it all ourselves at no additional cost."
About 3Com
3Com is the global leader in functionally-rich, easy-to-use networking products that connect businesses to their employees, customers and suppliers anytime, anywhere. 3Com is also a leader in Internet protocol (IP) service platforms and access infrastructure for the network service
provider market. In 1979, the company was founded by one of the inventors of Ethernet technology on which virtually all local area networks are based. Since then, 3Com has sold more than 340,000,000 Ethernet connections. 3Com employs approximately 6,000 people in locations worldwide and has headquarters in Santa Clara, California. For further information, please visit http://ca.3com.com.
About Glenbriar Technologies Inc.
Glenbriar Technologies Inc. (CDNX:GTI) is an information technology (IT) company headquartered in Calgary, with locations in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. Glenbriar designs, implements and supports business workflow improvement solutions for small and medium enterprises, including IT outsourcing and consulting services, IP telephony and call centre solutions. Glenbriar also develops, markets and supports a proprietary suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software modules to manufacturers and distributors through its subsidiary Peartree Software Inc. in Kitchener-Waterloo. For further information, please visit glenbriar.com.
