JT Packard

JT Packard is the nation’s largest independent service provider of network-critical power equipment. The company’s foothold on the industry began with uninterruptable power supply (UPS) equipment sales. As its service delivery matured, JT Packard naturally increased coverage to encompass the entire critical power supply: UPS, batteries, DC plants, generators, and HVAC equipment. The company, headquartered in Verona, WI, has more than 150 field offices across the country that maintain its service agreements in all 50 states. Property management firms and Fortune 500 companies alike trust JT Packard to ensure the constant flow of power to their mission-critical operations.

“We wanted to reduce overall phone system costs — both operational and usage costs.”
— Kevin Mengelt, CIO, JT Packard.

Faced with an outdated PBX-based system, JT Packard decided to deploy an IP-based unified communications system that would reduce both operational and usage costs. The system would also provide features currently unavailable, such as four-digit dialing and integration with Salesforce.com, as well as the ability to see direct dial numbers, conduct conference calls independently, and display caller information on the computer screen. The team considered cost, architecture, scalability, and ease of use closely when comparing ShoreTel to Cisco.

“Upfront costs are not all that matter. We did a total cost of ownership analysis and ShoreTel came out on top. We knew we’d save money over time with ShoreTel, which is what counts.”
— Kevin Mengelt, CIO, JT Packard.

ShoreTel provided JT Packard with ShoreTel Voice Switches and ShoreTel IP Phones, as well as ShoreTel Director for end-to-end management. With the ShoreTel system in place, all employees are on a centralized phone and voicemail system, using four-digit dialing to reach each other anywhere, even if they’re working from home. With ShoreTel Call Manager, which provides Microsoft^® Outlook^® integration, each employee has a graphical interface on their computer for managing both voicemail and email, directory dialing, contact screen pops, and calendar integration. Other benefits include:

• A lower total cost of ownership, as the system is easy to manage, easy to scale, and requires little or no end-user training.
• JT Packard presents a unified front to the outside world, whether workers and contractors are working from home, at distributed offices, or on the go. Presence information helps team members to find each other quickly, and on the first try.
• Conference calling costs of $3,000 to $4,000 per month are eliminated with 24-port ShoreTel Conference Bridge.
• ShoreTel’s Workgroups allows call centers to manage and to utilize their contact center resources more efficiently, while improving the quality of service to their customers.

“We were spending $3,000 to $4,000 per month on conference calling before ShoreTel. Now it’s covered with the ShoreTel Conference Bridge, and we use 16,000 caller-minutes a month.”
— Kevin Mengelt, CIO, JT Packard.