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VOICE AND TELEWORKER SOLUTION | ||||||||||
Ceres Environmental“When you can walk out to a location and plug in a phone and it works, that’s a huge benefit. The other systems we looked at were much more complicated and a technician was required to make a new phone connection.” TELEWORKER SOLUTION HELPS CERES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVE DISASTER RECOVERY SERVICES
Natural disasters can devastate the environment and bring a region’s economy and infrastructure to a standstill. It’s Ceres Environmental’s mission to provide quick mobilization to remove debris and restore disaster areas to a secure and healthy state.
Following Hurricane Katrina, Ceres responded immediately and was awarded a $500 million debris removal contract by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). They hauled up to 200,000 cubic yards of debris daily and more than 13.2 million cubic yards over the life of the project. For a company that’s required to setup an office in a disaster area on a moment’s notice, mobile communications is a must. A major responsibility for Mike Hansen when he started his position as Asset Manager for Ceres last November was to help their staff and subcontractors (up to 2,000 at times) become as mobile as possible in a very short period of time. Hurricane Katrina forced Ceres to expand their communications system. Hansen said the first three to four weeks they were there they essentially had no communication between their offices. Cell towers and land lines were down so they had to set up runners between their locations to communicate with each other. Hansen started looking at ways they could quickly set up an office in an area to contact local military and government agencies and communicate with their other offices. “We need to have good communication in order to survive,” said Hansen. It was time for Ceres to update their 15 year old NEC PBX system which had no remote communication capability. Ceres conducted a competitive analysis of several systems including the Mitel 3300 system. Hansen had worked with Marco to implement a Mitel system at the organization he worked for before joining Ceres. “The Mitel technology was much more simple to use, especially on the teleworker side,” commented Hansen. The SolutionIn February of 2008, Marco installed and implemented a Mitel 3300 IP system with 70 phones and Mitel Teleworker and Mobile Extension software. The system integrates with their Microsoft Unified Communications (UM) and Office Communications Server (OCS). “Marco’s technicians did a wonderful job,” said Mike.Ceres uses the Internet to connect the Teleworker solution at their Brooklyn Park office so they can communicate with other locations for daily meetings, conference calls with project managers, etc. The Teleworker software and phones allow them to setup communications at an office in another state instantly. “When you can walk out to a location and plug in a phone and it works, that’s a huge benefit,” said Hansen. “The other systems we looked at were much more complicated and a technician was required to make a new phone connection.” Hansen literally just sends the teleworker phone to the remote office to plug in and they are set to go. Hansen said, “In Louisianna, our staff refers to their Teleworker phone as the ‘bat phone.’ They thought it would take days to hook up their phone. When they received the phone and could just plug it in and it worked, they were amazed by it. They said the phone reception is so clear – there is no buzz, no hiss, and no pop.” He went on, “The president of our company loves it too. He can be at any of our offices and pick up his phone and it looks like he is at his base extension from any location. He is also very pleased with the cost effectiveness of the system as compared to other systems.” Ceres currently has 10 Teleworker phones in Florida, Lousianna, and Puerto Rico and just recently expanded to another five Teleworker phones. |
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