Point Project Management

Point Project Management frees staff with IP phone system by M5 Networks Australia

Point Project Management (PPM) is one of Australia’s leading project management consultancies, operating within the building and property industry. PPM provides project management services to clients in both the public and private sectors. With 23 employees operating across its three Australian offices and the relocation of its headquarters, PPM required a phone system that could support the company’s fast-paced growth.

Challenge: Increased business efficiency while maintaining company growth

Since its inception in 2006, PPM has experienced exponential growth. In just four years, the company has grown to from one staff member in Canberra to 53 staff in six offices across Australia and providing services as far as Papua New Guinea.

The company needed a scalable phone system that could grow with their business, while increasing business efficiencies. Employees were also often shifting between offices, so the company needed a phone system that could address their need for seamless communications.

“Our company was expanding rapidly, with three new offices opening across the country and overseas and additional staff members. We needed a reliable and efficient phone system that could provide flexibility to accommodate our organisation’s changing needs,” said Brendan Bilston, Managing Director at PPM.

“It was essential that we acquired a phone system that could support our consultants’ call needs no matter where they were located; at our headquarters or clients’ sites, and traditional phone lines do not offer that flexibility. The system needed to be scalable and flexible to support the business as it grew. Diverting calls is a very involved process with traditional PABXs,” he added.

“We didn’t want to have a PABX in every state, which would be costly. There was also the question of allowing for calls between offices that would not be too costly, whether these were within Australia or with our overseas offices,” he said.

After some research, evaluation, and deliberation, PPM decided that a VoIP phone system would be the most beneficial.

“VoIP would provide cheaper calls if we could find a hosted solution rather than paying for costly infrastructure. More importantly, VoIP also offers more flexibility, integration with our email, and would be scalable. We needed an enterprise-level solution but didn’t have enterprise level budgets,” Bilston said.

Solution: Professional hosted IP services

Bilston and his team evaluated M5 Networks Australia along with other hosted VoIP providers. After an extensive screening process, M5 was appointed to provide and manage PPM’s voice services due to their expertise in hosted IP phone systems and additional features that they were able to customise to PPM’s particular needs.

A ‘one company’ IP phone system utilising a single hosted telecommunications framework was installed, removing the need for PPM to purchase and manage the system. The system allows all PPM offices to operate on one network which permits free internal calls through a four-digit extension for each end-user.

M5 also customised the system so that users shifting between offices could log in to any desk phone, which were installed at desks in every Australian office. Another major feature was the ability for employees to make calls via their laptops. This enables calls to be received and made through M5’s system so that call quality remained high, and provide clients with surety that they can reach their PPM advisor anywhere.

PPM was also able to centralise their call handling to a single reception located in the head office in Canberra. This has become the national reception for all call enquiries across all of PPM’s offices.

Benefit: Professionally hosted telecommunications system

As a leading provider of hosted IP phone systems, M5 was able to offer PPM a comprehensive phone system that adapted to the company’s telecommunication needs. In addition, M5 provides round-the-clock phone management support service that eliminates PPM’s need to specifically hire IT staff to manage its phone system.

“As a relatively small company, we don’t have a dedicated IT department. Having our phone system hosted for us has changed the way we use our phones because we able to take advantage of the system’s state-of-the art functionalities like big companies do without needing to manage it ourselves,” he added.

Benefit: One company phone network

PPM was able to utilise a single telecommunication framework that allowed for free internal calls between offices and remote sites resulting in lower cost of calls. The company also receives just one invoice for all its offices.

“We were also able to centralise our calls to the head office in Canberra where our reception desk is located, eliminating the need to have receptionists in every state and providing cost-savings for the company. Our receptionist has full visibility into who is available and who is currently on a call, so she can decide to take a message or put the person on hold,” Bilston said.

“Overall, we have saved about 40 per cent in call costs while we have been with M5,” he added.

Benefit: Seamless communications

M5’s smart business phone system allows employees from PPM to move between offices without disruption to their communications – a truly mobile workforce.

“We are able to take our numbers with us and keep in contact with our lines at all times. All voicemails are sent to our emails, so that can be picked via our smartphones while we’re on the go. With number portability, we can log in to any desk phone at any of the state offices and receive and make calls using our individual numbers. If we go to our Papua New Guinea office, we can log into the M5 program and make calls via our laptops, again using our individual numbers. With this consistent voice platform, our customers can’t tell the difference - they’re able to reach us via one phone number, no matter where we physically are.”

“M5’s product and services have been of exceptional quality. They are very professional and dedicated to what they do. They understand the technology well and are able to provide advice on risks or business needs we might have. We have never had a fault, and when we need further explanation on anything their helpdesk has been more than willing to assist us any way they can,” Bilston concluded.