Leading firm of Chartered Accountants & Business Development Specialists

After fifteen years of operation, PRB found it increasing difficult to obtain parts and support for their old Avaya phone system. Business growth plans were also being limited by the inflexibility of the old system and, to compound things, their IT Company had warned that BT would be withdrawing their ISDN services by the 2020s.

The managing partner, Chris Whitley-Jones knew that they had to find a replacement and decided that a new Hosted Voice Over I/P solution would be the perfect solution: “The technology provided us with flexibility, modern features and the opportunity to dispense with our expensive ISDN 30 lines by routing calls over our dedicated Ethernet line.”

Chris opted for Interface Advantage’s Hosted Voice service; he had been impressed at how their LiquidE Ethernet Service (already in-situ) had resolved long-standing ISP issues.

Due to the demands of the business, the voice project had been put on the back burner for a few months. However, the start date was quickly brought forward when disaster struck. A local power outage knocked out the old phone system and although the power was restored quickly, the Avaya system stubbornly refused to restart. Being in a mobile phone blackspot meant that calls could not even be forwarded to a mobile. Chris had to call Interface Advantage from the carpark to ask how quickly the proposed new system could be implemented.

The team at Interface Advantage swung into action, dispatching a dozen handsets together with an engineer to site the next day. As most programming for Hosted Voice is managed centrally, the engineer could get straight down to patching in the new phones and had an emergency partial service up and running shortly after his arrival. The remaining handsets and permanent installation was completed over the next few days.

Everything went perfectly and Chris was delighted with Interface Advantage and the success of the project: “Interface Advantage’s quick response was impressive and it certainly saved the day but it also demonstrates the inherent flexibility in their Hosted Voice service.”

Not long afterwards, PRB agreed the takeover of local Accounting firm Aspens. Interface Advantage were then able to configure the Hosted Service for the additional users and ported Aspens telephone numbers directly onto PRB’s service. This allowed a smooth integration of the two businesses without the need for costly upgrades or engineering visits. Additional handsets were simply sent to site, ready to use.
A further requirement arose a little later involving PRB’s bespoke CloudKeeping software. This is designed to be used by self-employed network marketers, sole traders and CIS contractors. The software is intuitive and specifically designed for this sector with the Telephone Helpline being an important part of the service.

In order to keep the Helpline operating in the same way, Interface Advantage incorporated a dedicated number into PRB’s system, allowing CloudKeeping users to bypass the switchboard and speak directly to the specialised support staff at PRB for real-time assistance.

As can be seen, Interface Advantage have now built up a strong relationship with PRB, having taken care of not only the main project but additional add-on work too. Chris has been delighted with their work to-date and the way that the team took care of everything in a professional and proactive way: “ It has been a pleasure dealing with Interface Advantage to date. They have proved to be extremely reliable and flexible in the various services that they provided. I would have no hesitation in recommending them to other businesses.”