THE CLIENT
Ausure Horizon Insurance deploys flexible, cloud-based communications platform with Viatek. Headquartered in Newcastle, Ausure Horizon Insurance is a corporate authorised representative of Ausure Pty Ltd and committed to providing insurance programs tailored to fit client requirements. The company has decades of industry experience during which time it has succeeded in achieving one of the industry’s highest lifetime client retention rates.
THE CHALLENGE
As Ausure Horizon Insurance’s brokerage business has grown exponentially during the past few years, its existing telephone system had come under increasing pressure. Internal calls between office locations and external calls to clients and partners were generating more traffic than could easily be managed.
THE SITUATION CAME TO A HEAD IN 2019 WHEN THE COMPANY ACQUIRED ANOTHER FIRM. WITH KEY STAFF BASED IN MELBOURNE AND THE HUNTER VALLEY, THE PHONE SYSTEM WAS UNABLE TO PROVIDE THE LEVEL OF SUPPORT REQUIRED.
"We realised we needed a system with more flexibility,” says Summers. “We also needed the capability for our directors to be easily contacted when travelling overseas.”-
David Summers, Managing Director, of Ausure Horizon Insurance, says it became apparent that changes were needed or the company would have to hire a full-time receptionist to handle incoming calls.
“In mid-2019, we made the decision to invest in a new telephony system. We set out to scour the market to find the best possible fit for our operations.”
While the situation was quickly rectified, it served to highlight a gap in the company’s security defences. Working with long-term technology partner Viatek, the firm set out to determine what steps needed to be taken.
THE SOLUTION
After carefully evaluating a range of options, a decision was made in late 2019 to implement a unified communications platform from Access4. The cloud-based platform was capable of delivering both voice and video calling capabilities without the need to invest in complex, on-premise systems.
Working with technology partner Viatek, Ausure Horizon Insurance began the first stage of the deployment in February 2020. This was followed by a second stage in March and a third stage which was completed in April.
Office-based staff were equipped with Yealink T54W handsets while others had softphones installed on their smart devices and personal computers.
THE BENEFITS
Once the new infrastructure was fully operational, the company’s Newcastle based staff quickly noticed some significant benefits. The platform’s sophisticated functionality made the company’s operations much more flexible and better able to meet the needs of clients. Calls could be easily transferred between locations and staff could be contacted on their landline numbers regardless of where they happened to be.
Our staff are now able to work from anywhere and still remain in contact at all times,” says Summers. “Even when travelling overseas, our directors are able to call customers and receive calls directly to their device of choice.
Summers says the platform was particularly valuable during the COVID-19 shutdowns. With very little notice, staff were able to shift to home-based working while retaining full usage of the Access4 infrastructure.
"We were able to achieve this with no external technical support. Everything was very plug-and-play and full functionality was available at all times.”
The organisation also benefited from a significant cost reduction in salary savings of over $60,000 per year with the company no longer requiring the services of a full time receptionist. These savings have now been invested back in the business with new support for broking staff.
The platform’s collaboration tools also allow staff to easily communicate across different mediums efficiently. Voice calls can be augmented with video session as required with users needing nothing more than a smartphone to participate.
The system has given us a level of professionalism and flexibility that we simply didn’t have in the past,” he says. “It fits with the way we work perfectly.”
“We were very impressed with the support and guidance provided by Viatek,” says Summers. “Their comprehensive product knowledge and ability to solve our communication problems was second to none.”
Summers says Ausure Horizon Insurance looks forward to working with Viatek as the business continues to grow.
“We now have a technology partner that understands our business and can consistently deliver the support that we require. They have provided us with a scalable communications platform that will meet our needs for many years to come.”
