Lincolnshire Co-op is owned by its 175,000 members and employs 2,500 staff. Its principal areas of activity are food retail, pharmacy, funeral services, travel, non-food retail, coffee shops, motor services or dealership and post offices. Profits are ploughed into local community projects and returned to members in dividends.
Up until six years ago, Lincolnshire Co-op used various telecoms providers across its many sites, which resulted in varying service levels and inconsistent line quality. When problems arose there was little technical support, and the various providers charged different rates on individual invoices. Today, InTechnology is providing 100+ LANnet connections; hosted IP Telephony; fixed line voice services; all outbound calls across the estate, and NGN Numbers.
Andrew Turner, Head of Group Services at Lincolnshire Co-operative Ltd, explains:
“We became increasingly dissatisfied working with resellers as we felt they were not interested in offering any more than the cheapest phone calls. Although cost was an issue, we were looking for a supplier that was the source provider rather than simply a reseller as we knew that they would be able to offer specialist expertise to complement the product. The best thing about InTechnology was that they could deliver over and above what we wanted, yet reduce costs at the same time.”
“InTechnology are helping us deliver the best value to our members. The less money we spend on telecoms, the more we have to give back in dividends and invest in local community projects,” concludes Turner.
As the sole provider and supplier, InTechnology provides the same service across all 120 locations. Robust service level agreements are in place, offering peace of mind, and central expertise and support is provided around the clock. The Co-op can also take advantage of extra services such as internet, broadband, managed network and managed firewalls.
Stefan Haase, Marketing Director at InTechnology, comments: “As a result of our all inclusive, fixed cost solutions, Lincolnshire Co-op can now achieve significant cost reductions and simplified budgeting. We’re able to guarantee reliable and good quality phone lines with much improved performance, and importantly, down time and potential for lost business is significantly reduced. Moreover, Lincolnshire Co-op can also try out new services without having to commit to them across the business.”
Having switched to InTechnology, Lincolnshire Co-op’s staff now have confidence in the reliability and quality of the lines. High speed connectivity for internet and emails is a given; and there is now easy access to central services from any location. Finally, technical expertise is now available 24/7, allowing the IT team to concentrate on core business issues.