FHP O-Cedar

From its melodious slogan to a pantry full of household products designed to ease the burden of housework, the O-Cedar brand has had a significant presence inside most North America kitchens, bathrooms and utility closets since the early 1900s. FHP O-Cedar continues its undisputed claim to “make life easier” with an expanded portfolio of brands and progressive household goods carried across big-name customers including Costco, Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Ace Hardware, and Walgreen’s.

“Our day-to-day customers are not actually consumers but rather the retail chains that sell our products to those consumers. Our company is in constant contact with buyers and logistics departments, and warehouse teams. Ensuring that our telephony infrastructure system is reliable is critical.” 

— Stefan Roehrig, Director of IT, FHP O-Cedar.

At its present headquarters location outside Chicago, Illinois, FHP O-Cedar underwent construction of a state-of-the-art building to accommodate corporate offices, product manufacturing, warehousing and shipping all under one roof. The company is very proud of its ability to meet stringent Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, a nationally accepted benchmark for sustainable, highperformance “green” construction. A progressive, integrated business communications solution was needed to unify the consolidation at headquarters.

“With a dynamic call center, a mobile sales force, and employees on the manufacturing floor or in the warehouse, there is always a need for responsive, flexible communications to make our business work—and keep our customers happy.”
— Stefan Roehrig, Director of IT, FHP O-Cedar.

FHP O-Cedar deployed a ShoreTel UC system comprising 120 ShoreTel IP Phones and ShoreTel Voice Switches of various models. ShoreTel Director provides single console management, and ShoreTel Call Manager fully integrates with Microsoft Outlook. The solution also includes wireless access points on campus for reliable connectivity with Ascom wireless telephones that also fully integrate with ShoreTel. Benefits include:

• The ShoreTel UC system offers FHP O-Cedar up to 15 percent lower TCO than its nearest competitor, with an anticipated return on investment of less than one year.
• ShoreTel Call Manager helps improve communications through fully integrated email, voicemail and mobile capabilities so field staff can quickly identify and respond to important calls.
• The ShoreTel distributed architecture and user-friendly interface are key to the system’s ease of management and reliability, enabling FHP O-Cedar to improve calling times and staff efficiency.

“ShoreTel came in just about 15 percent below its nearest competitor, Cisco, on TCO. With ShoreTel, we were able to get a very attractive communications system that met all of our criteria—lower TCO, progressive technology that’s simple to operate, and excellent local support.”
— Stefan Roehrig, Director of IT, FHP O-Cedar.