DART Transit Company

Family owned and headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota, since 1934, DART is a financially strong and growing company providing transcontinental and short-haul services to Fortune 500 corporations through a network of shipping, logistics, brokerage, warehousing, rail, and storage offerings.

"Only ShoreTel was able to give us ease of management, open APIs for flexible integration, extensive workgroup functionality, and a lower total cost of ownership. People often undervalue open API capabilities. But for us, ShoreTel’s open API platform was a big deal because we have so many custom-built applications and need to ensure flawless integration.”
— Dan Lyddy, Vice President of Information Systems, DART Transit Company

DART was supporting thousands of calls each day through its primary mode of communications: a mid-1980’s Mitel SX-2000 PBX system. To allay the strains of an outdated telephone system, DART had installed voice response systems, and shifted a portion of its order placements to electronic transmittals that come through employees’ desktops. And its fleet of 2,000-plus trucks is equipped with a computer terminal in each vehicle for communicating routine information between driver and office, with exceptions still handled through phone calls. Yet DART continued to struggle with a lack of visibility and functionality necessary for better call routing and tracking, faster response times, and easier, cohesive communications.

“Users initially resisted the new technology—that evaporated overnight. ShoreTel is so easy to use and manage. Now the company can’t imagine using anything else and it’s been immersed into our culture,”
— Dan Lyddy, Vice President of Information Systems, DART Transit Company

DART evaluated systems from Mitel, Avaya, Cisco and ShoreTel. After talking to ShoreTel reseller Transcend United Technologies, Mr. Lyddy was impressed with the simplicity of a ShoreTel Unified Communications solution. During a five-minute demonstration, Transcend United had the ShoreTel phone system up and running; and soon after, several remote offices and a customer service department were implemented and integrated with the existing Mitel PBX system. ShoreTel benefits include:

• ShoreTel supports more than 200 workgroups providing rapid response to customer calls, driver calls and safety matters.
• ShoreTel’s open APIs let DART write and integrate custom applications for optimizing business processes.
• Call wait times have been reduced from 20 minutes to rarely a queue.
• Costs have been reduced due to the elimination of many T1 lines, extra data line requirements, and the need for outsourcing phone maintenance.
• ShoreTel’s VPN solution has eliminated the need for POTS lines and improved performance, continuity and reliability from distributed locations.

“ShoreTel has altered our universe with such ease and efficiency. We can do so much more with our UC solution than we even thought feasible. People are more productive and like all the functionality. Drivers appreciate the ease of doing business from the road. And our customers are getting superior service faster. And as a company, we’re saving time, money and are better equipped to meet our ever-changing business needs.”

— Dan Lyddy, Vice President of Information Systems, DART Transit Company