Successful businesses don’t become so without a solid action plan. Take, for instance, Del Monte, which has been a household name since its founding in 1916 — its products are found in 90 percent of American households today, following its acquisition of H.J. Heinz four years ago. 

 

Much of its success is certainly attributable to quality products — its brands include Del Monte, StarKist, S&W, Contadina, Meow Mix, Kibbles ‘n Bits, 9Lives, Milk-Bone, and Snausages — along with a solid business plan. But no plan can be properly executed without the right infrastructure in place.

 

Thus, in order to further enhance its communications capabilities in order to grow its business even further, Del Monte embarked on a mission to replace its aging Octel voice mail system. Company headquarters had already deployed a CallXpress system from AVST (News - Alert) (Applied Voice & Speech Technologies), but the new plants, acquired in the Heinz deal, were still using an old Aria 250 system, which was coming to the end of its support lifespan.

 

Thus, with HQ already using the CallXpress platform, it made sense to standardize on a single platform when Del Monte went in search of the right solution for its other facilities. Furthermore, by deploying a single, unified solution across the company, a full-scale VoIP roll-out in the future would be considerably simplified. 

 

So, because of the benefits of a single-platform solution, in terms of administration, continuity, and cost savings, Del Monte opted to deploy the CallXpress Unified Communications (News - Alert) solution in all of its corporate offices after considering its options.

 

“CallXpress was the best solution for three reasons,” said Dave Braun, Del Monte Foods’ Senior Network Analyst. “First, CallXpress had a very attractive maintenance offering. Second, we liked the fact that CallXpress could seamlessly network with our existing Octel systems until we phased them out completely. Third, it mimics Octel’s user interface, which is already familiar to our users. As a result, we had to invest in very little training to switch 3,000 employees over to the new system.”

 

AVST’s CallXpress provides call processing, unified messaging, fax, notification, and IVR capabilities in a single solution, eliminating the need for disparate solutions for different components. As such, it not only enhances the communications capabilities for the entire workforce, but it does so while creating cost efficiencies for the company.

 

Instead of deploying a complex solution blindly across the company, Del Monte was able to match user needs with the appropriate features from AVST. For instance, message management features can be applied for users, ensuring their messages are delivered to their email or voice mail boxes as needed, allowing for efficient time and message management. Voice mails sent as email attachments can be easily viewed and listened to in any order — as opposed to a straight voice mail system, where users have to go through each message before reaching an important voice mail at the end of the queue.

 

Del Monte also installed the auto attendant feature, which easily accommodates the varying and fluctuating schedules of various personnel. For example, plant workers can call in to be guided through prompts — in English or Spanish — based on their shift — to determine what time they should report, whether overtime will be needed, and the status of production, all of which creates a more efficient work environment. 

 

The company installed five CallXpress systems to support some 3,000 users at 28 sites, on a single enterprise-wide VoIP platform, tightly integrates with its Cisco (News - Alert) Call Manager IP switch. It expects another 14 facilities will be migrated in the next two years, including bringing a total of 4,000 employees onto the system by the end of next year.

 

“We’re very satisfied with the choice we made,” said Del Monte Foods’ Manager of Telecommunications, Dennis Tokarski. “We have saved about $150,000 per year on maintenance by replacing our two Octel systems alone.”