An optimal international collaboration with Zoom Phone

The internationally operating AmbaFlex is growing fast, which is why it has recently switched to a completely new telephony system, based around Zoom Phone. In order to provide one solution for all the employees all the locations around the world, Duppal was enlisted.

An innovative logistics partner with worldwide ambitions

AmbaFlex was founded over 25 years ago and is growing fast. The company is active in all markets with intense internal transportation. This includes production facilities and logistics companies. AmbaFlex is also still an important supplier for the graphics industry, even though this industry has been significantly decimated over the last few years, without prejudice to the fact that very efficient drying towers are still supplied.

An international challenge

The main office of AmbaFlex is located in Zwaag in the province of Noord-Holland. Furthermore, the company has various production locations in the United States, Romania and China, with sales locations and sales offices all over the world. Various departments and locations work together intensively, sharing knowledge, discussing trends and thinking of solutions for clients together.

International growth comes with questions

The international growth of AmbaFlex raised various questions. Especially with regard to collaboration between various departments and locations, the existing working methods were no longer sufficient. The various locations made use of local solutions for telephony, with loose contracts. This way of working became more and more obscure and difficult to manage and was not equipped for working at a distance.

Marcel Schilder is Global IT Manager at AmbaFlex. One of his responsibilities in this function is to manage the IT infrastructure of all locations at the company. This covers various matters, including facilitating internal communication options to optimally work (together) digitally.

Due to the growth of the company, something had to be done to streamline processes and properly align the work activities of all colleagues. A new collaboration tool was needed, especially when the pandemic started.

A structural solution

According to Marcel, the start of the pandemic had a big impact on the need for digital collaboration: “In the early days of the pandemic, we worked from home a lot. It wasn’t long before this resulted in various challenges. For example, our support department must always be available: if a client’s logistics system malfunctions due to a technical problem, it has to be solved right away. 

One of the challenges during this period was a very practical one: at some of our locations we only had landline phones. Which meant that employees from the support department had to use their own mobile phone at home. Receiving calls? That was simply impossible sometimes, because there was no central solution for this problem yet. We did everything we could to help our clients as much as possible, but it became clear soon enough that we needed to implement a more structural solution”.

A new tool needed to be implemented to provide a solution. Because of the successful previous collaboration on the implementation of Zoom as a collaboration tool for meetings, AmbaFlex got in touch with Duppal.

An electronic doorbell, FSFA components and Chinese protocols

Duppal rose to the challenge. The collaboration kicked off right away, and Duppal has been involved with developing the necessary technology and infrastructure from the start.

First of all, the teams from AmbaFlex and Duppal started talking to employees of all departments at the various locations of the company. At the main office in Zwaag alone, this meant conversations with colleagues from no less than 22 different departments. From the reception to the sales department and the various support teams; every department uses telephony in its own way. During these conversations, all functionalities, wishes and demands were listed, as the basis for a concrete plan.

Once there was a clear overview of the wishes of employees and management, and the required functionalities from IT, the telephony solution Zoom Phone soon came into the picture. The choice was also based on the existing infrastructure: AmbaFlex had already been using Zoom for online meetings. “Since our employees were already doing all their online meetings via Zoom, Zoom Phone was a logical choice for our telephony solution. For the users, it means that to make calls they only need one extra tab in the app that they already know, both on the laptop and on the phone”, says Marcel.

Another reason for choosing Zoom Phone, was the communication with the office in China. Marcel: “Due to the laws and protocols with regard to connections in that country, it turned out that a lot of the usual means of communication didn’t work. Since Zoom works with other protocols than other suppliers, it does work in China. China is an important market for us, so it’s important that we can collaborate properly with our team there. This is certainly part of why we chose Zoom Phone”.

More than just phone calls

Marcel explains that all kinds of interesting aspects were highlighted during the conversations with the departments: “At our office in Zwaag, for example, the electronic doorbell and the alarm centre were linked to a phone number. Because we were going to replace our whole system, we needed a solution for this as well. Our FSFA officers also work with various devices, which are linked to the network: another factor that we didn’t consider beforehand, but thanks to Duppal’s approach of interviewing all departments, we realised it before it was too late. Thanks to our smooth collaboration with both Zoom and Duppal, we were able to get a customised solution for all these challenges”.

Worldwide on-site at the launch

Duppal was present during the whole process, from putting together a plan of approach to providing support during the implementation and answering user questions. The preparation of the process was extensively discussed and finetuned online: this way, the AmbaFlex team was able to get to work with Zoom Phone right away.

Marcel: “The on-site support of Duppal has a lot of added value and is simply essential during the implementation phase. The Duppal team is closely involved during the whole process. We appreciate that they take their time to also come to our locations abroad, to talk to our people there and to provide trainings and support. Especially during the go-live at all of our locations, it inspires confidence that there is someone present who knows everything about our implementation and about Zoom. It’s very valuable that there is an expert on-site who can answer questions and give practical tips”.

For the IT employees at the company locations, it is good to know that there is someone to provide support during this transition. “It’s especially helpful that there is someone from Duppal physically present during the launch, it makes the switch very easy. Transitions like this are very complex and suspenseful for our IT departments as well”, Marcel adds.

Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone connect people and make it easier to work (together)

The result of the implementation is clear for Marcel; the collaboration between colleagues and locations is a lot smoother than before, and almost everyone is very satisfied about Zoom and Zoom Phone.

“You can find the colleague you need with only one push of a button, you can see if they are available right away, and you can send a chat message directly from the app. Do you want to switch to a video meeting? You can do so easily, with two hands on your keyboard. Our colleagues have gotten used to using a headset with their laptop in no time. It’s just so much easier than holding a phone in your hand. Zoom Phone has become the standard solution for all of our internal and external communications.”

“With extensive implementations like this one, challenges are unavoidable. Thanks to the knowledge and efforts of Zoom and Duppal, we have found solutions for each and every one of these challenges”, says Marcel.

Would you like to know more about Zoom and Zoom Phone for your organisation?

Would you like to know more about Zoom (Phone) or how we can make the online collaboration between your colleagues and teams run more smoothly? Contact us today to schedule a consultation and start improving your team’s collaboration experience! Or download our whitepaper ‘Work flexibly and stay accessible with cloud telephone’ and find out how to improve employee reachability with cloud telephony, without incurring additional costs and high investments in hardware.