Kentucky Newspaper Seeks More Efficient Phone System: Turns to Norlight's Hosted VBX Solution for Help

Is your phone system giving you a headache?

Having a well-functioning phone system is important for any business, but it's doubly important for a newspaper, with numerous contacts calling on a daily basis. However, Kentucky New Era, a newspaper founded in 1869 and headquartered in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, was dealing with an antiquated phone system that created inefficient communication and decreased employee productivity.

Kentucky New Era is the only daily newspaper in the Hopkinsville area, which is home to approximately 52,000 residents. With the collective hard work of their 80 employees, the paper reaches 15,500 households and businesses.

Being the area's only daily newspaper means living up to a high level of customer service, but the main problem with Kentucky New Era's phone system was the absence of voicemail, something that is generally a standard feature in conducting business today. To add to the phone system's inefficiency, many people calling the newspaper are from different time zones, making it challenging to provide assistance during early morning and late evening hours.

Another setback involved the Circulation department, which has the important task of packaging the printed product and ensuring that papers are delivered on time regardless of the weather. Often these employees work odd hours, with being on the road a necessary task for motor route carriers. Missing important phone calls, with no way for callers to leave recorded messages, can delay urgent matters from being addressed, particularly for those mobile employees.

Lastly, the amount of resources the newspaper had to devote to the maintenance of a new phone system was minimal. With only one IT employee, Kentucky New Era did not have the time or manpower available to focus on such a task.

Answering the call

Now, the newspaper depends upon Norlight's Hosted VBX service for its telephone system needs. As the name suggests, Hosted VBX is a hosted IP telephony solution that bundles feature rich PBX functionality, local phone, long distance and dedicated Internet services and delivers them over a single, private IP connection.

As a hosted service, it’s entirely managed and maintained by Norlight, allowing Kentucky New Era's single IT employee to focus on core business initiatives, instead of managing the phone system. Phone features are automatically updated, adding additional convenience.

Norlight knew Hosted VBX would meet Kentucky New Era's needs of delivering reliable phone services to all employees, regardless of whether they're located in the Hopkinsville headquarters, either of the newspaper's satellite locations, or on the road. In addition, the Unified Messaging feature empowers employees to access their calls and voicemails from any telephone or Internet-connected computer, greatly increasing employee productivity and addressing the inability of customers to reach employees not at their desks.

A smooth transition

The Hosted VBX installation was completed over five days to ensure a smooth transition. First, the new equipment was installed while the old phone system remained active. The Norlight team encouraged all employees to use the new phones, in order to increase their comfort level with the new system before it went live and to identify questions that would need to be covered in training sessions. Finally, the Hosted VBX service went live on the last day of the week.

"On Friday, the day we were scheduled to go live, all three of our Norlight reps were here early and stayed throughout the day, working with our employees to make sure our expectations were met," said Kentucky New Era Business Manager Sheryl Ellis.

Meeting the needs

Norlight provided several instances of custom design work to ensure that Kentucky New Era's new phone system met the specific needs of each department. Separate call queuing was put in place for the Classified and Circulation departments, with automated time-of-day routing for the Circulation staff when they need to work outside of normal business hours.

"The new phone system has helped our Classified and Circulation departments because these two departments have queues that tell them how many people are on hold and if additional service reps need to sign in and assist employees," said Ellis.

"Hosted VBX solved all of our challenges and provided so many additional features that have helped us increase productivity," added President and General Manager Chuck Henderson.

With their new phone system increasing employee productivity and allowing for better customer service, Kentucky New Era is confident these improvements will translate into additional sales.

* Hosted VBX not available in all markets. Contact Norlight for more details.