Business Challenge: • Support for aggressive store openings • Cost reduction across portfolio • Simple system administration to cope with high staff turnover Communication Solutions: • Total service provision • Call routing • BT Wholesale line rentals • IP enabled TDM technology	• Avaya IP Office • CAT 5 structured cabling • 24-7 support • Bespoke account management Altogether Better Results: • Store openings met in time • Outsourced telecoms provider, sympathetic to its needs • Reduced cost of ownership on telecoms • Simple adds, moves & changes and other administration tools

Over five years working together

Telinet started working with Zara UK and Ireland in 2000, originally to provide a maintenance service for the Avaya INDeX Telephone System, located in the Head Office.

Zara is part of the larger Inditex Group, within which Telinet also works with Pull & Bear, Zara Home and Massimo Dutti. From the initial consultation Telinet developed the relationship and the solutions it supplied to provide a fully outsourced telecoms offering. As Zara began to increase the number of stores Telinet was chosen as a business partner providing a wide range of telecoms services, with one point of contact for ease of management.



At the start of the relationship another telecoms company was used for least cost routing, BT provided line rentals and there was no fixed business contract for mobiles. In addition each store had its own provider for maintenance. With 5 stores in the UK, there was already a large number of companies involved and with the expected growth, this could only increase.

From this initial beginning Telinet developed the relationship and the solutions it supplied to provide a fully outsourced telecoms offering.

Rapid growth for the fashion company

Zara began to grow rapidly and a business partner was required to provide a wide range of telecoms services, with one point of contact for ease of management.

Telinet started to consolidate all the systems, providing one account manager for all Zara’s telecoms needs. Telinet also started to work proactively to support their aggressive opening schedules. For Zara this was a highly valuable process, as it allowed the focus to remain on the business of the fast paced fashion world.

As there is no IT department within the UK a reliable supplier was needed to manage and advise how telecoms could be used to effectively support the business, as well as a high level of support for the systems. By working with Telinet for all its telecom requirements Zara has centralised purchasing, benefiting from its greater purchasing power, especially through its ongoing growth. This has resulted in large cost savings for Zara.

Single helpdesk, single point of contact

Telinet proposed they should become the outsourced provider of all telecoms services and negotiated a deal for the maintenance of least cost routing and line rentals for Zara UK and Ireland. This involved consolidating services including lines, one bill solution, telephone systems, ADSL connections for home workers and cabling.

Previously all of these different services were handled by a variety of different contractors and companies, each with their own contact and helpdesk. Telinet provides a single helpdesk and account manager for all its services. As part of this solution a single bill is produced for all services providing Zara with the ability to view this bill online and print out the required report. This has saved a lot of time in the administration of running such a large system, with bespoke reports in an E xcel format, in addition to online billing. Telinet advises on relevant telecoms solutions to support the business as efficiently as possible. For example, initially there was one telephone operator based in UK and Ireland, who was getting too many calls to manage as the company continued to grow. Telinet installed and support an operator console software management on her machine, enabling her to see all the calls coming in to the system, hold and park calls and work more efficiently. To support this a voice management system and auto attendant was installed, which means there is always an answer on all calls, and some routine enquiries, such as store locations and opening times, are now able to be dealt with automatically, allowing staff to deal with more substantive customer enquiries.

Telinet provides central management of all programming, such as updating speed dials and password protection to reduce phone costs. In addition, Telinet provides ‘exception reporting’ to alert the management to any high cost phone calls throughout the UK, again delivering cost savings.

Trusted advisor to meet store opening schedule

Telinet works with Zara’s store project manager, MGPM, to ensure telecoms are in place for each shop opening. Telinet has the annual store opening schedule, and it delivers ISDN lines, cabling infrastructure, CAT 5 (data cabling shared infrastructure for all phones, fax etc) and any other relevant infrastructure on time.

Telinet also provides non geographic numbers, giving inbound traffic reports, which is useful for tracking marketing activities. In addition, non geographic numbers can be used in disaster recovery situations: numbers can be quickly redirected to another store, enabling customer enquiries to be dealt with as normal.

Telinet provide a high quality Service Level Agreement (SLA), giving premium cover 7 days a week, with a guaranteed level of response to fit with Zara’s long opening hours. As part of the SLA, Zara has a personalised login area to the Telinet site, where they can see site configurations of equipment, SLA details and how responses are being handled versus SLAs. With a freephone number to the helpdesk, all faults are logged into the site and Zara can see the process of each individual fault, in addition they get regular feedback as to the status of any faults.

Return on investment

Telinet won a three year UK contract with Zara in Summer 2005 for all lines, hardware and call traffic.

Zara has saved approximately 20% on its CAT 5 system, between 15% and 65% on call traffic costs (depending on destination), and approximately 23% on its line rentals. One way this has been done is increasing the number of devices running on each line. Originally each site would have a dedicated line for each PDQ, transact machine, fax, etc. However, the IP Office acts as a platform to double the amount of devices to half the amount of lines, giving big savings on line rentals.

Telinet has been instrumental in reducing costs and finding the best way to make systems work effectively and futureproof, advising on the use of VoIP to deliver cost savings within the company. It has also worked towards increasing security by managing the administration of all phone systems. This is particularly relevant due to the high level of staff turnover faced by all retailers. In addition, by instigating a VoIP link to their headquarters in Spain, there has been a significant drop in international call charges.

Zara has therefore been able to focus on its business, growing the number of stores and keeping on top of the latest fashion trends, leaving Telinet to manage all of the telecoms issues.

Zara says:

“Zara is very satisfied with the work Telinet has delivered during our time working together. It has provided us with the best solutions for our telephone systems and delivered excellent customer service, both from the help desk and the engineers who are on site.

During new site installations Telinet’s project managers coordinate the installation of new systems in advance and attend the opening of our stores, to cope with any last minute problems which may occur.

The engineers who work on site installing the lines are very professional and leave the store in good condition, to the full satisfaction of the staff on the site.

We are very pleased with the ongoing relationship we have with Telinet and the level of customer service we receive.”



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