Home Case Studies The Walters Group The Walters Group

The Walters Group

Sector: Manufacturing

Key Feature: Distributed Architecture

Expanding their operation into a brand new Head Office & Manufacturing Centre of Excellence, The Walters Group needed a communication system that could be as flexible as their business and as aspirational as their goals. Having manufactured communication products for the likes of Nortel Networks, Lucent Technologies, Avaya & Thales, The Walters Group know a thing or two about telephone systems. So when it came to kitting out their brand new Head Office & Manufacturing Centre of Excellence, SpliceCom's maximiser business telephone system proved the natural choice.

"maximiser's ability to meet our ever changing communication needs, as dictated by our constantly evolving business, was a big influence in its choice."

John Walters - Founder & Chairman - The Walters Group. 

 

Company Background 

Founded in 1971 and located in High Wycombe, UK and Nantong, China, The Walters Group offers a full range of Electronic Manufacturing Services to a wide range of customers including Bentley, Nescafe, Oxford Instruments & TDK. The Walters Group of companies consists of; 

  • Walters Microsystems - UK EMS Manufacturing 
  • Yan Walters - Far East EMS Manufacturing 
  • Aquila Innovations - Product Design & Development 
  • Cygnus Plastics - Toolmaking & Prototype Mouldings 
  • Orion Industries - Volume Injection Mouldings 
  • Auriga SB - Sheet Metalwork 
  • Stryke International - Component Purchasing 

Other ventures include Golf Plus, specifically founded to market a £2m sporting application for GPS technology and Magnolia Park Golf & Country Club near Aylesbury. 

New Factory & Offices 

Having doubled the size of their UK manufacturing facilities with the opening of a 26,000 sq ft Head Office & Manufacturing Centre of Excellence in 2004, The Walters Group were looking for a communication system to compliment their new high-tech environment. "Having previously used Alcatel telephone systems throughout the company we needed something that delivered greater flexibility in terms of deployment, alongside the ability to integrate with our IT systems," said Mark Newell, Managing Director of The Walters Group.  "SpliceCom's maximiser solution, provided and installed by Datacomms Warehouse, gives us exactly what we were looking for from a modern telephone system." 

Distributed System Deployment 

One of maximisier's key strengths - somewhat unique amongst the new wave of IP PBXs - is its ability to support high densities of both IP and analogue handsets. maximiser's modular design and distributed architecture allows its system components to be placed exactly where they're needed. This has allowed the Walters Group to provision the maximiser Call Server and a 30 extension Phone Module in the communications room, a further 15 extension Phone Module on the Sales Floor and a second 15 extension Phone Module within the Manufacturing Centre. All four maximiser modules are linked via the company's IP LAN network, resulting in a significant saving in cabling costs - one Ethernet cable can be used to replace up to 30 conventional twisted-pair cables.  

Converging Phones & Computers 

Most of The Walters Group employees have SpliceCom's PCS 10 phone on their desktop. This analogue system phone features a large display, which clearly shows who's calling - and whom they're calling - 10 pre- programmed system keys and a voice mail guidance system. Perfect for everyday telephony tasks, The Walters Group staff get even more out of their phones by using them in conjunction with SpliceCom's PCS 50 application. This "Phone Partner" runs on Microsoft Windows & Apple Mac OS X PCs - The Walters Group use both in their new offices - and delivers ALL of the features and facilities associated with SpliceCom's top-of-the-range PCS 400 Touch Screen IP Phone to analogue phone users. 

One Office - Three Companies 

Walters Microsystems and Golf Plus both reside in the new Head Office, in addition to those dealing with the administrative functions of The Walters Group. Occasionally there is a need for employees to "re-locate" to a different company within the overall group for specific projects. maximiser's inherent flexibility allows The Walters Group to effortlessly meet all these requirements. DDI numbers for each separate company, department and employee allows calls to be automatically routed to the intended recipient. The single operator employed by The Walters Group can handle calls on behalf of all three companies, answering each one appropriately as the company (or department) that the call is actually destined for is clearly displayed on the screen of the PCS 400 IP Phone utilised for this task. Any employee moving between "companies" can physically move to a different desk and have all their DDI calls, voicemail, etc., delivered as before by simply logging on to the phone provided - or they can keep their same desk, but participate in departmental calls for their "new" company. Alternatively they can simply choose to forward their calls to another phone or mobile - maximiser even allows calls taken on mobiles to be put on-hold and then transferred to another number if required. 

Web Cam Security 

In addition to the widely deployed PCS 10 analogue phones, several of the key employees within The Walters Group use SpliceCom's state-of-the-art Proactive Communication Station (PCS) 400 terminals. These revolutionary IP Phones have no keys, instead a large, full colour touch-screen is used to make telephone calls, in addition to handling other traditional telephony functions in a user-friendly manner - more akin to the ease-of-use associated with mobile phones than a business telephone system. The PCS 400 is built around web-browser technology. This means that any page that can be viewed through a conventional web-browser to be seen from the phone screen. This information could reside on the Internet, company intranet or any other web-based application. The Walters Group use this facility to link their phone system to a web cam located in their un-attended reception area. This allows the receptionist/operator to clearly see who is coming in or out of the building on the screen of the PCS 400. 

Productivity Gains Through Convergence 

Deployment of maximiser gives The Waters Group employees' a wide choice of "fast" dialling options, allowing them to increase their productivity by greatly reducing the time it takes to make a phone call. maximiser's integral Contacts database allows 5 telephone numbers to be stored against each entry and supports up to 10,000 names. Calls are then placed from this company-wide database, via the large graphical interface provided by the PCS 400 IP Phone and PCS 50 Phone Partner application. Favourites allow employees to build up a list of their personal, most frequently dialled numbers - which can be internal or external.  These "one-touch" Favourite icons also reflect engaged and ringing status when used for internal users and Departments. Finally, some employees have chosen to link their phones with Microsoft Outlook, allowing phone calls to be automatically generated by double clicking on the relevant contact entry. 

Future Proofing 

"SpliceCom'smaximiser phone system has already exceeded our current expectations," states John Walters, founder & Chairman of The Walters Group. "However, maximiser's ability to meet our ever changing communication needs, as dictated by our constantly evolving business, was also a big influence in its choice."  Walters Microsystems currently carry out Box Build Manufacturing at Cetec House, a 20,000 sq ft facility located less than a mile from the new Head Office. The second phase of The Walters Group roll-out is to install a 100 Mbps LAN Emulation Service (LES) between the two buildings, provision a second maximiser Call Server & Phone Modules at Cetec House and then link the two separate sites to provide one single seamless system. Employees will be able to see who's available to take a call - and who's not - wherever they may be located. Hot desking between sites will also be available, providing delivery of DDI, Departmental and Voicemail calls wherever an employee may choose to be. "We're also looking to provide extensions from our maximiser system in other offices within The Walters Group," states Mark Newell, Group Managing Director. By linking these extensions via Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), this will allows us to save on call costs - particularly on calls from our Chinese facilities - whilst at the same time improving our productivity." 

 

Project Highlights 

The maximiser implementation for The Walters Group has enabled them to deploy a true 21st Century communications system in their 21st Century Head Office & Manufacturing Centre of Excellence. maximiser's distributed architecture has allowed its system components to be deployed exactly where they are needed by The Walters Group. This has drastically reduced the amount of cabling required - and the associated cost. Its hybrid design has allowed employees handling key tasks to utilise screen based IP Phones, whilst for every day telephony use, SpliceCom's PCS 10 system phone is in widespread use.  Many employees choose to use their PCS 10 in conjunction with the PCS 50 Phone Partner application running on their Windows or Apple Mac PCs, giving them access to system wide directories for other Walters Group employees, external contacts, visual voicemail management, etc. Other choose to link their desktop phone with Microsoft Outlook and dial their contacts via the PC application. Finally, maximiser has the scalability to handle both the consolidation of existing Walters Group locations to form a single unified telephone system - with inter-site telephone calls being made "for free" across the data network - and the plans for expansion through both natural growth and acquisition. 

System Summary 

 

  • One 4100 Call Server 
  • Two 4315 Phone Modules 
  • One 4330 Phone Module 
  • Combined IP/Analogue Implementation 
  • 30 ISDN Channels 
  • 3 IP Extensions 
  • 60 Analogue Extensions 
  • 3 PCS 400 IP Phones 
  • 40 PCS 10 Analogue Display Phones 
  • PCS 50 Software for Windows & Mac OS X computers 
  • Eight port voicemail with 60 mailboxes 
  • Call recording 
  • Auto attendant 
  • Integration with Microsoft Outlook 

 

Commercial Benefits 

 

  • Efficient distribution of phone calls to Walters Group staff, wherever they might be. 
  • The ability to deploy IP & Analogue telephones allows key employees to utilise the benefits of IP Telephony, whilst wide-scale deployment of analogue 
  • handsets for "bread & butter" telephony use keeps costs down. 
  • Pure IP system design provides future proofing. 
  • Walters Group employees in other locations can be added to a single unified, group-wide telephone system as/when required. 
  • Door entry camera converged with telephone system for convenience and cost reduction. 

 

Staff Benefits 

 

  • Ability to forward DDI and departmental phone calls to mobiles or any other phone when out of the office. 
  • Wide range of choice for desktop control; Traditional telephone only, PC control of telephone through PCS 50 Phone Partner, or integration with Microsoft Outlook for outbound dialling. 
  • SpliceCom's approach to Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) treats those using Windows or Apple Mac PCs as equals.