Lippert's Carpet One

Carpet One, North America’s leading floor covering co-op of retailers, includes over 1,000 independently owned and operated locations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Offering a broad selection of carpet, wood, laminate, ceramic, vinyl, and area rugs, Lippert’s Carpet One includes three locations in Oregon: Grants Pass, Medford, and Klamath Falls, and three branch offices in Medford, Bend, and Rogue River.

“In retail, your phone system needs to work 100 percent of the time, and with Mitel, we were just never at that level.”
- Dan Berntson, Information Technology Manager, Lippert’s Carpet One.

In January 2002, Lippert’s was looking to improve its communications flexibility, as well as decrease voice line and long distance calling costs. The company initially intended to replace its 15-year-old phone system with a Mitel solution at all of its locations. However, after three short and problematic years with the new system in just one location, they decided to bring a halt to the implementation and to seek a simpler, more reliable solution.

“After seeing many capabilities like the great speaker phones, tight voicemail integration, SoftPhone, easy management interface, and conferencing, we dropped Mitel and went with ShoreTel.”
- Dan Berntson, Information Technology Manager, Lippert’s Carpet One.

Based on the recommendations of their integrator, Oregon-based Helix Inc., Lippert’s went with ShoreTel. Along with price, the team appreciated how ShoreTel’s unified communications tools — rich media, advanced mobility, and presence — were built in to the system, requiring no special add-ons. In January of 2005, ShoreTel provided Lippert’s with equipment to replace Mitel throughout the organization, including ShoreTel Voice Switches and more than 50 ShoreTel IP Phones. Benefits include:

• Advanced mobility for salespeople in the field. ShoreTel’s SoftPhone lets them use their PC or laptop with the same features of their desktop extension, on the go or from home. 
• Cost savings in the form of higher productivity, and elimination of third-party conferencing services. ShoreTel Converged Conferencing enables teams to pull together easily and to collaborate on the fly.
• An end to system downtime, and to dropped calls. In the unlikely event that a switch fails, the other switches on the network automatically take on the call-processing load.
• An improved customer experience with features like Follow Me Find Me, which allows employees to configure the system so that customers calling in can track them down on any phone number they choose — for instance, on their cell phone or home phone.

“We were told the ShoreTel system was designed with minimal training in mind, and we were all pleasantly surprised at how true this was. You’re pretty much knowledgeable on the operation of the phones after just the first day.”
- Dan Berntson, Information Technology Manager, Lippert’s Carpet One.