Too old to upgrade
A failing 14+-year-old system from InterTel, and a voicemail solution with an operating system written by IBM in the 1980s, were expensive and lacked advanced telephony features.
Small IT team needs support
Depending on the time of year, Cascino Vaughan Law has between 30 and 60 employees working in its Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin offices.
When its disparate legacy system and voicemail solution were failing, the organization began looking for a new solution. “We wanted to have reporting capabilities that we haven’t had before. We wanted to see who was calling and when they were calling. We didn’t even consider a hosted solution. Joe Rittenhouse at Converged Technology said we should consider ShoreTel Sky and gave us the reasons why. I did my due diligence, and once we decided to replace the phone system, we went with Converged Technology’s ShoreTel Sky recommendation, and have been happy ever since,” says Susan Dwyer, systems manager for Cascino Vaughan Law.
Since the cutover, the law firm’s experience with ShoreTel Sky and ShoreTel’s service and support has been quite a different story. “I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to call AT&T lately or Verizon or any of the other companies. It’s frustrating. There are probably two people doing the work done by 12 people last year and 25 people the year before. With ShoreTel, I have a button on my phone with a question mark on it, and if I push it there’s a really smart ShoreTel person on the other end who can fix my problem immediately. For a two-person IT department, that’s service,” explains Dwyer.
ShoreTel Sky helps track marketing and advertising effectiveness
Cascino Vaughan Law does a lot of advertising and personal outreach. Often, the partners go out and talk to unions or groups in small towns in northern Wisconsin or less populated areas in southern Illinois or in Gary, Indiana, and do a presentation, mostly on the subject of the damaging effects of asbestos.
“We’re a small firm and work hard to get the message out that people may have lung damage due to asbestos. There are towns in Wisconsin, in northern Wisconsin, for instance, that have had asbestos trucked in or it has come in on open train cars. It’s blowing everywhere. And that doesn’t sound alarming to most people, but asbestos can have horrible effects. Fiber can get in in their lungs and start scarring the lung. All these people did to deserve this was to hang their laundry out in the backyard as the train was going through. So for us it’s important that we get the word out there and say to people, ‘This might be what happened to you,’” explains Dwyer.
The firm assigns each presentation a separate callin number to make it easy to look at the usage log and tell which presentation went well. Often, when calls come after a presentation, those calls go to voicemail. When the messages are retrieved, Dwyer can tell if the person is responding to a specific part of the presentation.
For example, if the person said, “You said I should tell my neighbors about this, so I’m telling my neighbors,” that language is kept in the presentation. “We don’t have a marketing department. We have overworked partners that are running around the Midwest trying to get business, trying to help people. So ShoreTel’s ability to help us track our marketing in real time is unbelievably helpful. With the inbound call usage log, we can tell immediately how effective our efforts are,” says Dwyer. “We had absolutely no ability to do that with our InterTel switch.”
“SHORETEL’S ABILITY TO HELP US TRACK OUR MARKETING IN REAL TIME IS UNBELIEVABLY HELPFUL. WITH THE INBOUND CALL USAGE LOG, WE CAN TELL IMMEDIATELY HOW EFFECTIVE OUR EFFORTS ARE.”
Susan Dwyer, Systems manager
Cascino Vaughan Law
The law firm also relies on ShoreTel’s advanced unified communication features. For example, when the receptionist is on vacation, other employees simply log on as the receptionist and answer the calls. Phone assistant indicates who’s on the phone, and when calls can be transferred to the call recipient or sent directly to voicemail.
“As soon as I saw how easy it was to set up an extension, I was elated. I just go into my user group and see the phone numbers that I have available, take one, put it over here. We’ll come up with a name, we’ll come up with a phone number for it, and an email address, and seconds later, it’s done,” says Dwyer. “We also have the ability to take lines out of service. That takes five minutes. We don’t pay for what we don’t use. And the cost savings between using 30 or 60 lines is pretty significant.”
With savings and superior support, the verdict is unanimously in favor of CT-Pros
“CT-Pros are the most professional consultant group I have ever worked with. I would trust both Joe Rittenhouse and Eric Peterson to the ends of the earth. They have never tried to sell me anything I didn’t need. They have never let me down when I had a problem. And they’re a phone call away. It’s simple to get a hold of hem. I have somebody assigned to our account who is not located in Chicago. But he may as well be because he’s looking at my system at 5 in the morning when he gets up, and I know that because I get emails from him at 5:30 in the morning,” says Dwyer.
“We’re saving money without spending a great deal of money, or spending weeks training somebody,” concludes Dwyer. “ShoreTel has everything we need and things I didn’t even know we needed, |like the recording features. What could be better?”
“CT-PROS ARE THE MOST PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT GROUP I HAVE EVER WORKED WITH. I WOULD TRUST BOTH JOE RITTENHOUSE AND ERIC PETERSON TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. THEY HAVE NEVER TRIED TO SELL ME ANYTHING I DIDN’T NEED. THEY HAVE NEVER LET ME DOWN WHEN I HAD A PROBLEM. AND THEY’RE A PHONE CALL AWAY.”