Business Challenge: • Increasing multiple international locations • Management reporting • Highly competitive marketplace • Maintaining renowned service Communication Solutions: • Mitel 3300 ICP/Teleworker • Call traffic • Line rentals • ADSL • Non geographic numbers	Altogether Better Results: • ROI delivered in 12 months • Mobility • IP connectivity across multiple sites • Call centre • Reduced call costs • Revenue stream from non geographic numbers

Customer focus

Mark Warner was established in 1974 with one ski chalet in Verbier, Switzerland. Since then it has developed into one of the most highly regarded independent travel companies in the UK, carrying over 50,000 passengers to a mix of ski and beach resort holidays each year. Since its conception, Mark Warner has lead the way in many aspects of the travel business.

The philosophy is simple: Mark Warner combines great locations, a friendly relaxed environment, lots of facilities (tennis, watersports, childcare, ski hosts, etc) brilliant staff and good company to give a holiday that is unique. The company has grown through reputation and the holidays are recommended time and time again. In fact each year over 75% of holidays are sold on the basis of recommendation and repeat booking. Mark Warner has been working with Telinet for nearly ten years, providing maintenance on their existing phone system and providing call traffic, line rental and ADSL.

Telinet consulted with the IT department and end users to fully understand the requirements of the company. It was decided that a slow migration to IP would be implemented, using the Mitel 3300 ICP as a gateway onto the INDeX, furthering the life of the system.

Expanding and future proofing

Mark Warner wanted to take advantage of the latest IP technology to provide greater connectivity with the expanding number of hotels across Europe, mainly located in France and the Alps, without replacing their existing system.

Overall Mark Warner needed to have easier communication across the various hotels in order to increase customer satisfaction and increase efficiency, whilst reducing call costs across the chain.

Future proofing their existing systems was important as well as taking advantage of the latest in IP functionality. However, there was not the budget to upgrade the entire phone system, so a low cost solution of upgrading was required.

Finally, increased mobility of the UK staff was required as many of the management team were on the road, visiting different locations across the UK and Europe, but they needed to be contactable in as easy a way as possible.

INDeX migration

Telinet recommended the Mitel 3300 ICP as the best solution for Mark Warner, as it could be used as a gateway to the INDeX via DPSS. Initially there were two INDeXs linked together, including the INDeX call centre application.

Mark Warner wanted to move towards IP as they knew the INDeX was end of life. They also had a very large expenditure on intersite calls to their chain of hotels across Europe and they wanted to reduce this cost. In addition they wanted to enhance the functionality of the business through mobile solutions.

The first stage was to deploy mobility via a Mitel 3300 ICP to give IP end points in all of the hotels, as well as a range of mobile options for managers who are on the move.

Seamless transition

To ensure there was no down time we deployed the Mitel out of working hours, on the client's request. The IT department of Mark Warner stayed with the Telinet engineers, receiving on-the-job training.

Over five days the system was implemented across six countries, with Mark Warner’s IT department visiting each hotel and installing the handsets. In several of the French hotels the system is working across a wireless LAN environment with soft phones and Mitel's Your Assistant giving the mobile workers a variety of options for login into the phone system.

Reduced costs

Mark Warner received a variety of benefits from implementing the Mitel with Telinet. There was a seamless migration with no downtime at all, call costs across the sites have been greatly reduced and all of the original objectives have been met.

Telinet helped Mark Warner achieve their goals by understanding the requirements and providing a consultative role: for example, Mitel's Your Assistant softphone was only decided on after a demonstration from Telinet. The softphone has given increased mobility for staff, as they can use their phone functionality through their laptop and broadband link by just using a headset. This has also reduced costs for some of the mobile workers.

By having a close relationship with Mark Warner Telinet has ensured the system is future proof and will meet requirements on an ongoing basis. There are already plans for growing the system, for example in 2007 a call centre will be implemented in the UK. All of Mark Warner’s telephony is handled by Telinet, including data connections, call traffic, line rental etc, providing a single number for all telephony issues, reducing the amount of administration in running a telecoms system. In addition, a range of non geographic numbers are provided, which provide an income stream and gives the ability to track marketing campaigns.

Mark Warner says:

We have had a close working relationship with Telinet now for almost ten years. They were initially recommended to us by a colleague in the travel industry after we had had various issues with our previous telecommunications maintenance supplier.

Telinet took on the maintenance and support contract for all of our telecommunications systems and quickly established themselves as an extremely knowledgeable and reliable company. They fully project managed and installed a new INDeX telephone system within our 3 central London offices with very little down time and in an extremely professional manner.

Five years ago we decided to upgrade our telephone systems and to ensure we were receiving fully competitive quotations we put this out to tender. Matthew Lambert at Telinet successfully quoted and won the contract to carry out a full upgrade of our INDeX telephone system, and this was done yet again with no disruption and within timescale. They have subsequently supported and maintained all of our telecommunications equipment to a very high standard.

They have also supplied us with regular updates on industry developments and ensured that we have all of the information to hand to enable us to make the right decisions in regards to purchases of telecommunications equipment. They are also constantly ensuring that we are maintaining very competitive pricing in regards to our line rental and telephone charges, and with their assistance we brought in a range of 0870 telephone numbers to assist with both business continuity as well as bringing in income.

Most recently Telinet have installed a new Mitel IP 3300 switch which has introduced IP telephony into our organisation, allowing us to connect all of our internationally based hotels directly into our internal head office telephone system working across the Internet. This is helping to cut £000's off our international telephone bills. This is also the first stage of a phased IP introduction by which we are planning to eventually completely replace our INDeX telephone system. With the savings on call costs between resorts the Mitel system has paid for itself in 12 months, giving strong ROI.

We have no hesitation in highly recommending Telinet for their service and support and will continue to do business with them for the foreseeable future.

Graham Silversides
IT Director

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