Title
As general contractors for large-scale commercial construction projects, Davis Construction regularly maintains up to 20 temporary construction site offices across Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, creating communication challenges.
With Cognizant Microsoft Business Group’s help, Davis was able to take a progressive step forward by migrating their private branch exchange (PBX) phone system to a Voice of Internet Protocol (VoIP) system.
Testimonial
“Cognizant Microsoft Business Group was recommended to us by Microsoft. On every point we brought up, every question we had, Cognizant MBG gave us a thorough and timely follow up and made us comfortable. We did not think of Cognizant Microsoft Business Group as an installer or an implementer, but as a business partner.”
Steve Payne | IT Director
Challenge
When Davis needed to upgrade from their old PBX phone system, they had concerns about moving to a VoIP system, but they knew they wanted to create a better employee and customer experience and needed a more agile system to accommodate their multiple, changing work sites. One factor that made Davis’ communications needs unique was that they were setting up a new physical office with each major project. They were engaging with Verizon on every single job, setting up new phone lines, extensions, voice-mail boxes, etc. Skype for Business offered the possibility to end that cycle, saving time and money and giving staff one permanent phone number.
Solution
Steve Payne, Davis’ IT Director, said that Skype for Business had been at the bottom of their list of choices because they were worried about handling the technology themselves. The more they learned, however, the more comfortable they became and, in the end, Davis decided it would be far less expensive and cumbersome over the long run to have a robust implementation than to pay monthly for a hosted solution. Skype’s integrated instant messaging and video conferencing tools added even more value to the solution.
Benefits
Cognizant MBG’s Skype for Business solution for Davis brought their dozens of dispersed locations closer together. This creates more accessibility to vital information, and creates a stronger connection between employees. The instant messaging feature allows for orders and information to travel from leadership down, so that slow decision-making doesn’t create project stagnancy. Video conferencing reduces travel and keeps leadership on site for the employees. Complex construction builds requires the utmost in communication skills at all levels. For this mobile and deadline-driven field, only the best unified communications solution would suffice, which is why Skype for Business was the best option to help streamline communications for Davis Construction.
Results
- Four-digit dialing with extensions, conferencing, instant messaging and presence anywhere there’s a broadband connection.
- Phone numbers and voicemail boxes do not change with each new job site.
- Phone service has been flawless.
- Instant messaging has cut down on excessive emails (i.e., “Going to lunch.”).
- Switched from Go-To Meeting to Skype for Business video conferencing with no issues thanks, in part, to extensive end-user training.
- Cut out third-party vendor costs and individual job site hosted service provider costs to save thousands each month.
