Galaxy and Co takes their telephony to the Cloud

Galaxy and Co, South Africa’s leading independent jeweller, selects Cloud VoIP to redefine its bottom line

South African retailers are so complacent about their Telkom bills that they seldom seriously consider alternatives. Headlong against this trend is the high-ranking national jeweller, Galaxy and Co, which will soon harness a hosted Cloud Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution from Euphoria Telecoms to reduce telecoms expenses by more than R 500 000 per year.

Gavin Blignaut, Logistics & Operations Director of Galaxy and Co says: “Galaxy and Co is a distributed retailer with a head office in Cape Town and over 80 stores nationwide. Each store has a dedicated Telkom line. 40% of the calls on these lines are inter-branch calls. Each branch further has an ADSL line, which provides Internet access, and a spare line on its ADSL service to support a fax machine. Our telecoms solution is complex and unwieldy and each month we watch it do damage to our profitability. Eight months ago we decided that there had to be a better way. We called experts in.”

Euphoria Telecoms’ CEO, George Golding, says: “Galaxy and Co met with a number of providers before inviting Euphoria to deploy a proof-of-concept hosted Cloud PBX installation. During the early stages discussions focused on quality of service, redundancy, security, scalability and our complimentary business features. Within the first days of the trail, Galaxy knew that the Euphoria VoIP voice quality equaled that of their ageing analogue system. Soon after, we proved Euphoria’s rock-solid business case.”

The national roll-out of Galaxy and Co’s hosted Cloud VoIP solution starts in September and will eliminate all internal call costs, including that of conference calls. Outbound call costs will be slashed by 30% month-on-month, and Telkom line rentals will become a thing of the past.

Golding says: “Because of their unique business model, distributed retailers often end up with extortionate telecoms bills as store numbers grow and geographic coverage increases. In today’s market, the cost reduction which hosted Cloud VoIP effects – by eliminating all internal call costs alone – is transformational.

“Another area in which hosted Cloud VoIP is benefitting distributed retailers enormously is that of centralised call centres. Take, for example, the exhaust and tyre fitment industry. At the moment customers call a local branch and may end up speaking to technical staff unable to maximize sales discussions or manage tough calls. A hosted Cloud PBX places a centralised call centre, which can then transfer calls to branches free of charge if necessary, firmly within every distributed retailer’s financial reach.” According to Golding, retailers can introduce a national 087 number, and port existing landline numbers (011, or 021, etc.) so that a single, central number can be used for marketing purposes.

For Galaxy and Co the move to Cloud VoIP marks an exciting new phase in the retailer’s growth plans. Euphoria Telecoms advises others interested in deriving similar benefits to consider Galaxy and Co’s measured approach to their hosted Cloud VoIP installation as best practice. Golding concludes: “As is the case in any industry, when it comes to Cloud computing all solutions are not equal. Telecoms is a business critical function, so great care must be taken to forge the right partnerships and to introduce proven solutions.”

About Euphoria

Founded in 2010, Euphoria Telecoms provides Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication services to small and medium enterprises in South Africa. Euphoria powers businesses with its core offering – Euphoria Express PBX – a hosted PBX phone system that provides customers with the quality, security and reliability of traditional PBX phone systems, with more features, greater flexibility and considerable cost savings. Euphoria helps businesses to reduce costs, eliminate complexity and compete more effectively by providing communications services traditionally reserved for large organisations, at small business prices. Euphoria’s fast-growing base of satisfied clients includes Altech Isis, Medway Medical Insurance, Galaxy and Co, Fullhouse Furniture, Wimdu and Visual Tours. View our website at www.euphoria.co.za.

Editorial contacts

Euphoria

George Golding

Tel:      +27 (0)21 200 0500

Cell:     +27 (0) 82 9511 190

Email:  george@euphoria.co.za

Web:   www.euphoria.co.za

Liquid Ambur Communications

Ambur Unite-Penny

Tel:       +27 (0)21 794 7601

Cell:     +27 (0) 83 409 7059

Email:   ambur@liquidambur.co.za