GRAS is an award-winning architecture and design studio based in Edinburgh. By focusing on timeless design principles, GRAS’ team of architects, designers, and technologists develop refined yet characterful solutions that put the needs of users first.
Like many businesses, GRAS adopted a cloud-based system, including handsets for each team member, to ensure continuity through COVID-19.
After the lockdowns were lifted, the business transitioned to a full softphone solution using the same platform with staff using their company-issued laptops and desktops to access calling services from their computers, and a BYOD policy for mobiles.
However, frequent call dropouts and sudden loss of audio on calls started to become more common, undermining the confidence GRAS’s staff had in their phone systems. Despite team members reaching out to the provider to fix the issues, resolving one issue often led to the emergence of another.
Staff started to resort to using their personal devices due to the platform’s unreliability, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of overall transparency. This created further frustration among the team as conversations became harder to track and any dropped call posed a risk of not only ruining the brand’s credibility with its existing clients but miss new opportunities to help the business grow.
“Our telephone system was becoming incredibly frustrating. Our team was wasting time, calling back clients if calls dropped out, which had a knock-on effect on their perception of us. Plus, we could have been missing multi-million-pound project calls if we happened to get an enquiry during an outage.”
Nikki Jowett, Office Manager, GRAS
After mentioning their issues to a commercial partner, they recommended Windsor and introduced Nikki and the team to Windsor.
After hearing about GRAS’s issues, Windsor took a structured approach to better understand the root cause of the problems and finding the best possible solution.
Windsor engineers reached out to outsourced IT team, collaborating with them to understand the underlying issues. Once they realised that the incumbent’s telephony service provider was the root cause, they continued to work with GRAS’s IT support provider to explore alternative platforms and ensure compatibility with the studio’s existing systems, addressing factors such as firewalls, hardware and resilience.
Xelion was quickly identified as the best solution for GRAS’s needs, as the platform is hosted on AWS infrastructure, providing strong resiliency to ensure calls stay connected and call quality never drops.
Within X weeks of first being introduced to GRAS, Windsor was already customising the platform, tailoring the solution to GRAS’s specific requirements, including:
• Importing contacts from all GRAS team members to create a shared address book that everyone could use to communicate externally.
• Crafting an efficient call management experience, complete with hunt groups, out-of-hours configurations, and auto-failover if Nikki (the preferred contact for external calls) was unable to answer the main number.
• Facilitating Individual voicemail messages for team members’ DDIs as well as email alerts to ensure staff never missed a call.
• Integrating Microsoft Calendar and Presence indicators to ensure team members were always aware of each other’s availability and prevent calls being transferred while busy.
• Delivering comprehensive training over 4 interactive sessions via Teams, so that everyone understood all of Xelion’s functionality and ensure a seamless transition.
From the moment Windsor’s solution went live, GRAS experienced an immediate transformation in their communication capabilities with the new Xelion system accurately reflecting the quality of GRAS’ brand.
Stable and reliable from day one, Xelion has since restored confidence across the team and eliminated the frustration and inefficiencies they previously experienced using the incumbent’s platform. With calls no longer dropping and audio quality consistently strong, recognising the efficiency and reliability of the platform, the studio’s staff are now confident enough in GRAS’s calling system to use it over their personal devices, ensuring visibility and traceability of all calls.
Now freed from the distractions of troubleshooting, raising tickets and using their own phones, GRAS staff can fully focus on delivering their core services, reassured they won’t miss crucial opportunities or damage client relationships due to technical issues. Plus, Xelion’s seamless integration with their existing Microsoft Calendar and presence indicators, further streamlining their internal workflows and collaboration.
Windsor’s proactive support and attention to detail throughout the onboarding process left GRAS feeling confident in their telephony infrastructure. Any concerns raised were swiftly addressed, giving the team peace of mind and allowing them to concentrate on high-value tasks without interruption. This robust communication system has not only elevated GRAS’s operational efficiency but also positioned them to confidently pursue future growth opportunities.