Verse Group overhauls its ageing telephony system with ScopeLogic and 8×8
As one of Australia’s most admired and trusted recruitment specialists, Verse Group specialises in sourcing and placing IT staff into a range of client organisations across a broad range of industries. Headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, Verse Group sets itself apart for employing consultants with an entrepreneurial flair.
The Challenge
Since its founding eight years ago, Verse Group has been enjoying a year-on-year growth rate of around 40 percent. While this has been great for business performance, it has put pressure on supporting equipment and services.
One area experiencing particular stress was the company’s telephone system. The platform was capable of supporting a maximum of just 16 handsets and had just four connection lines to the outside world.
“We got to a point where we had decided to move offices to better accommodate our growing staff numbers,” says Jeff Grbelja, Director Verse Group. “We took that as an opportunity to also upgrade our telephony system to something better able to meet our requirements both now and in the future.”
Grbelja says that, from the outset, the company had made as much use as possible of cloud-based IT resources. For this reason, the objective was to find a telephony solution that was also cloud based, removing the need to have complicated equipment installed within the offices.
“We also wanted to find something that would integrate closely with our existing Bullhorn CRM platform,” says Grbelja. “This was important to ensure that workflows were as efficient as possible.”
The solution
Verse Group’s senior managers reviewed and evaluated a number of prospective telephony systems to determine which would be the best fit for the company.
“We examined a range of options and rated the pros and cons of each,” says Grbelja. “After careful consideration, we believed that the 8×8 platform deployed by Scope Logic would best meet our requirements.”
Scope Logic arranged a demonstration of the platform during which senior managers were able to see the various features and capabilities in action. They also had numerous questions answered about issues such as the ability to handle future growth.
“Following that demonstration, we were convinced that 8×8 was the right choice for us,” says Grbelja.
Deployment of the unified communications platform was completed in quick fashion, and included a cloud-based phone system, powerful analytics, and a single administrative interface for user provisioning, system configuration, and management of their network of 20 staff. Their team also enjoys the benefits of Team Chat and our enterprise-grade video meetings platform as a way to collaborate, stay engaged; and conduct 100% secured and encrypted video interviews. The solution is also integrated into Bullhorn enabling them to be more efficient and supports the company’s customer engagement strategy.
“The integration with Bullhorn allows us to be a lot more efficient. Automated logging of call and chat logs is a great feature, as is the fact that we don’t have to toggle between applications. Also, caller information pop-ups allow us to deliver a personalised experience.”
“Virtual meetings have become more important than ever. Having our own branded virtual private rooms on 8×8 has made a massive difference.”
Jeff Grbelja, Director, Verse Group
The result
With the new cloud-based 8×8 platform in place, Verse Group was quickly enjoying some significant benefits.
Line restrictions became a thing of the past with all staff able to make and receive calls as required. Calls could be readily passed between staff members and group calls initiated at the press of a button.
“We are also now able to control the phone numbers that clients use when they are calling into the office. This is much better as, previously, consultants often gave out their personal mobile numbers which was far from ideal.”
Verse Group has also rationalised the number of messaging platforms being used across the company. All staff now use 8×8 Chat which has standardised the way messages are sent and stored.
“We are also making use of 8×8’s video conferencing, both internally as well as externally for interviews and client meetings,” says Grbelja. “This means we can begin a conversation as a voice call and then quickly change it to a video call when required.”
“When it comes to collaboration, it’s great to be able to have our own virtual meeting rooms. The rooms can also carry our branding which adds a professional touch, especially when meeting with clients,” Grbelja continues. “As the city isn’t always a convenient place to meet on many occasions, our virtual meeting space has become more important than ever before.
To have our own branded virtual private rooms has made a massive difference.”
