Spanlink Deploys Cisco Solution for Knight Transportation
MINNEAPOLIS – Aug. 31, 2009 – Spanlink Communications, a leading provider of advanced business communications technology and network integration, today announced it has helped Knight Transportation deploy Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE) to eliminate costly long distance, toll and carrier costs, and excel customer service. Cisco UCCE is helping Knight Transportation centralize its business communications solution and answer customer calls more quickly and easily.
Additionally, financing options with Cisco Capital is making it easier and more affordable for this nationwide truckload company to equip its 400+ customer service reps with Cisco Unified Communications applications.
“In the transportation industry you are talking to customers and drivers on a daily basis, and missing a phone call equates to losing business,” said Cory Staheli, vice president of IT at Knight Transportation. “We chose the Cisco solution over the Avaya solution for a number of reasons – we were comfortable with the Cisco architecture, we liked their technology roadmap and we were impressed by the way Spanlink and Cisco packaged the IP solution to meet our business needs.”
By partnering with Spanlink and deploying Cisco UCCE, Knight Transportation:
-- Is moving from managing 31 phone systems, down to one.
-- Has pre-configured disaster recovery measures in place; in the case of a phone outage, calls will automatically route to the nearest available service center.
-- Has access to real-time and historical reporting data, such as hold times and call volumes.
-- Dials only five digit extensions to connect with employees throughout the organization.
-- Provides its drivers and customers with one common, consistent caller experience.
-- Accesses email, voice, and fax messages from a single inbox anytime, anywhere and on any device.
In addition to the above benefits, as Knight continues to grow its business, the new UCCE solution makes planning for future sites much cheaper and easier. With its previous solution, opening a new facility meant installing two physical networks: one voice and one data. Combining the networks provides a reduction of $9,783.95 per site. Since the beginning of the deployment, Knight has already opened four new sites and has saved more than $39,000 in hardware costs.
Besides advising, selling and installing the solution, Spanlink is also providing Knight with its customer support services. Spanlink Support monitors Knight’s solution and has a highly-skilled team available to help solve any issues that arise 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. “Spanlink’s support throughout this entire project has been fantastic – you can’t get much better than fast and accurate,” adds Staheli.
“Spanlink prides itself on solving business problems for our customers, not just selling and deploying hardware and software solutions,” said Eric LeBow, Spanlink’s vice president of Business Transformation. “After an in-depth discussion with Knight Transportation, we deployed a high-quality Cisco solution that would not only meet its needs for today, but make future expansions easy.”
For more information about how Spanlink’s services and Cisco’s solutions have helped Knight Transportation, click here to view a recorded webcast, or here to read the full case study.
About Spanlink Communications
Spanlink Communications is a leading provider of unified communications and customer interaction solutions leveraging technology from Cisco and Interactive Intelligence. With more than 20 years of experience, Spanlink helps organizations link people, processes and business communications technologies to enhance human interaction, employee productivity and the customer experience. Spanlink’s collaborative approach begins with understanding its customers’ business objectives; and then creating, implementing and supporting leading technology solutions to achieve those objectives. Spanlink is a Silver and Master Unified Communications certified Cisco partner, and an Elite Interactive Intelligence partner. Find news and information at www.spanlink.com.
Follow Spanlink on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/spanlink.
Follow Spanlink's UC Blog at: http://blog.tmcnet.com/oh-say-do-uc/.
About Knight Transportation
Knight Transportation is a truckload carrier offering dry van, refrigerated, drayage, brokerage, and dedicated services to customers through a network of service centers across the United States. Knight strives to offer customers and drivers personal services and attention, while offering integrated freight transportation through the scale of one of North America’s largest trucking companies. Knight provides high service levels to a diversified base of full-truck-load shippers across a broad range of industries and freight types. To learn more about Knight Transportation please visit http://www.knighttrans.com
Additionally, financing options with Cisco Capital is making it easier and more affordable for this nationwide truckload company to equip its 400+ customer service reps with Cisco Unified Communications applications.
“In the transportation industry you are talking to customers and drivers on a daily basis, and missing a phone call equates to losing business,” said Cory Staheli, vice president of IT at Knight Transportation. “We chose the Cisco solution over the Avaya solution for a number of reasons – we were comfortable with the Cisco architecture, we liked their technology roadmap and we were impressed by the way Spanlink and Cisco packaged the IP solution to meet our business needs.”
By partnering with Spanlink and deploying Cisco UCCE, Knight Transportation:
-- Is moving from managing 31 phone systems, down to one.
-- Has pre-configured disaster recovery measures in place; in the case of a phone outage, calls will automatically route to the nearest available service center.
-- Has access to real-time and historical reporting data, such as hold times and call volumes.
-- Dials only five digit extensions to connect with employees throughout the organization.
-- Provides its drivers and customers with one common, consistent caller experience.
-- Accesses email, voice, and fax messages from a single inbox anytime, anywhere and on any device.
In addition to the above benefits, as Knight continues to grow its business, the new UCCE solution makes planning for future sites much cheaper and easier. With its previous solution, opening a new facility meant installing two physical networks: one voice and one data. Combining the networks provides a reduction of $9,783.95 per site. Since the beginning of the deployment, Knight has already opened four new sites and has saved more than $39,000 in hardware costs.
Besides advising, selling and installing the solution, Spanlink is also providing Knight with its customer support services. Spanlink Support monitors Knight’s solution and has a highly-skilled team available to help solve any issues that arise 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. “Spanlink’s support throughout this entire project has been fantastic – you can’t get much better than fast and accurate,” adds Staheli.
“Spanlink prides itself on solving business problems for our customers, not just selling and deploying hardware and software solutions,” said Eric LeBow, Spanlink’s vice president of Business Transformation. “After an in-depth discussion with Knight Transportation, we deployed a high-quality Cisco solution that would not only meet its needs for today, but make future expansions easy.”
For more information about how Spanlink’s services and Cisco’s solutions have helped Knight Transportation, click here to view a recorded webcast, or here to read the full case study.
About Spanlink Communications
Spanlink Communications is a leading provider of unified communications and customer interaction solutions leveraging technology from Cisco and Interactive Intelligence. With more than 20 years of experience, Spanlink helps organizations link people, processes and business communications technologies to enhance human interaction, employee productivity and the customer experience. Spanlink’s collaborative approach begins with understanding its customers’ business objectives; and then creating, implementing and supporting leading technology solutions to achieve those objectives. Spanlink is a Silver and Master Unified Communications certified Cisco partner, and an Elite Interactive Intelligence partner. Find news and information at www.spanlink.com.
Follow Spanlink on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/spanlink.
Follow Spanlink's UC Blog at: http://blog.tmcnet.com/oh-say-do-uc/.
About Knight Transportation
Knight Transportation is a truckload carrier offering dry van, refrigerated, drayage, brokerage, and dedicated services to customers through a network of service centers across the United States. Knight strives to offer customers and drivers personal services and attention, while offering integrated freight transportation through the scale of one of North America’s largest trucking companies. Knight provides high service levels to a diversified base of full-truck-load shippers across a broad range of industries and freight types. To learn more about Knight Transportation please visit http://www.knighttrans.com