Case Study: Harlow Bros

About Harlow Bros

Harlow Bros are Midlands-based experts in timber and engineered wood products, from merchanting to manufacture. With over 90 years’ trading, Harlow Bros’ portfolio includes a wide range of prestigious projects, ranging from racecourse installations, studs and riding schools to trainer’s yards.
This family-owned business has grown to a multi-million pound operation largely due to its policies of personal service, continuous development, expansion and investment in the future. Despite Harlow’s exponential growth, every customer continues to receive the same high level of individual attention and care that has earned the business its ‘customer first’ reputation.

Business need:

Harlow Bros has 10 sites – split between three main offices and seven smaller branch offices. With a thriving business and over 200 employees, telephony costs were also a concern. The business need for a cost-effective unified communications solution was clear, in order to maintain the exacting levels of customer care that Harlow has come to be known for.

Solution:

NT Voice and Data recommended the Avaya IP Office, a system that would meet Harlow Bros’ current and future growth needs. Harlow Bros will use the IP Office’s powerful features to help run their business smoothly, increase their productivity and reduce their telephony costs.
Benefits include:

  • Improved call answering from branches – with all 10 sites networked for voice, calls are handled centrally providing simplification for employees and customers.
  • Reduced telephony costs, through use of a VOIP solution.
  • The ability to resolve disputes effectively through use of the call recording functionality.
  • The ability to reach employees on the go, as the system extends to mobiles.

NT’s Sales Director Mark Beardsley said:

NT Voice and Data identified Avaya IP Office as the right system to ensure that Harlow Brothers could have the best possible communications system for customers and employees alike. With a strong focus on excellence, it was clear that the Avaya IP Office system was the best choice.

Of the solution, Harlow Bros’ IT Manager Mark Savage noted:

Harlow Bros is known for its reputation of customer service and as such, it was critical to ensure that we had a telephony system that streamlined communications for both employees and customers. Avaya IP Office offered the best of all worlds, with top-notch communications, easily networked systems, and most importantly, the ability to extend communications easily to mobile devices. With Avaya, we now have the opportunity to best serve our customers and ensure that wherever our employees are working, they have the best possible communications infrastructure.

Managing Director of Avaya Simon Culmer commented:

Harlow Bros is a company with a long and distinguished lineage, and needed a communications system that would grow as their business grows and adapt readily to the needs of the business and ensure smooth and efficient interactions with partners, employees and customers.