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Unified communications, unified organisation

Matcon Ibc Logo Vector

Reseller SGJ Solutions delivers cohesion and cost savings to multinational Matcon

About Matcon

Founded in 1980, Matcon specialise in providing solutions for handling and processing powders, granules, tablets and other materials to organisations world wide. With their head office in the UK and with eight other offices spanning four continents they have a truly global presence – allowing them to provide enhanced support and service to their customers, no matter where they are in the world.

The Challenge

With over 100 employees across the globe, Systems Manager Shaun Cousins faces a number of challenges on a day to day basis – with one of his most persistent problems being the phone bills. With frequent communication between the sites phone bills were consistently high, further exacerbated by large mobile phone bills accrued by executives who need to travel often and for long periods of time. In addition Cousins realised that with the right communications provision Matcon would be able to solve the age old problem for most global organisations – how to avoid becoming fragmented, increase cohesion and in turn achieve heightened productivity and efficiency.

When Matcon’s existing phone system suffered intermittent failures, Cousins decided to look for a new solution. “Our phone system provider went out of business and we could no longer get an affordable support and maintenance agreement. That was the main driving force for replacing the system,” he comments.

“I also wanted to use the opportunity to finally connect the sites to the same system (including our 28 remote workers across the world) as we did with our VPN six years ago, now that affordable technology is available.”


The Solution

For their new system, Cousins turned to SGJ Solutions – a Bristol based reseller with 8 years of experience in working with VoIP technologies. Steve Jones, Managing Director, remarks, “Since the beginning, SGJ has focussed on helping our clients to harness the benefits of convergence. Matcon were no different, and with their global presence they stood to gain a lot from replacing their archaic PBX with an IP based system.”
“Matcon opted for a VoIPCortex Pro IP PBX from UK based vendor ipcortex. With a low total cost of ownership and advanced functionality such as unlimited voicemail boxes and conference bridges included as standard, they were able to not only match
the functionality of the previous solution, but to build upon it”.

Cousins adds, “The ability to match our previous functionality was important for us. Things like tannoy, Caller ID and a contact directory were essential. While it wasn’t at the top of our priorities, I was certainly impressed by the additional functionality that was included – and equally impressed by the value for money. The VoIPCortex system did everything that the more expensive alternatives offered.”

When it came to the install, SGJ Solutions knew that Matcon needed a solution up and running quickly so as not to add to the disruption already caused by failures of the previous hardware.
“It was important that the new system could be installed and subsequently managed without any disruption – it had to just work,” comments Jones.
“We installed the system into the UK head office in two days, including the time it took to train key users such as the reception staff. Ahead of the switchover, the new system was rolled out for internal calls only alongside the existing system allowing users more time to adjust,” Cousins adds. “We connected the VoIPCortex system to the ISDN30 line on the evening of the second day, meaning that users were free to use the system the following morning. Keen to increase the resilience of the system after our past experiences, we opted to configure VoIP accounts as a backup should the ISDN encounter problems – allowing the IP PBX to failover automatically,” he continues.

The Value

Matcon have benefited in a number of ways since the VoIPCortex IP PBX was installed.
“It’s made a big difference to the way we communicate. Workers on the road can get their voicemail via email or their mobile phones, and the high level of functionality means it’s now so much easier for the offices to communicate – not to mention cheaper,” comments Cousins.

“Our key global remote workers are now all equipped with softphones and headsets, allowing them to contact colleagues internally through the VoIPCortex system for free – greatly reducing our mobile phone bills. In fact, since the system was implemented we’ve seen our overall call costs drop dramatically – even between our two UK sites. We have also been able to cancel our support line answering service by using the “access anywhere” voicemail, contributing to an even greater cost saving.”

“Finally, from my point of view as administrator of the system it’s made my life a lot easier. Managing all of the users from an intuitive, central web based interface allows greater control and it no longer takes half an hour (with downtime) to add a new user.

Now, I just make an extension, assign it to a telephone, give it a name and I’m done – no need to take the system offline, and no need to come into the office on my day off!”

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