Car dealer no longer in a pickle over phone costs
Pickles Auctions is the largest auctions and valuations house in Australia. It has been in business for 30 years and specialises in selling motor vehicles with an annual turnover reported to be in excess of $950 million.
The company has been using the Adtec -designed TeleBridge system since early 2005 for its audio teleconferencing and communication needs across all of its national locations through their NEC phone system.
According to Richard Ford, the national IT manager for Pickles Auctions, the system has met with resounding success.
Their company uses the Telebridge system for two purposes: firstly to conduct telephone conference calls which link staff in up to 16 locations around Australia, and secondly in their Live Online system to assist in selling cars over the internet.
Ford says the Adtec system not only is easy to use, but has given the company substantial Return on Investment (ROI) in a very short space of time.
Before adopting the Telebridge system, conference calls would cost hundreds of dollars, typically $1 per minute per party. Telebridge allowed Pickles Auctions to cut the costs down to a smaller fee as they used the company’s internal standard billing charges for each conference call
A typical application of the system goes as follows: the Live Online system is set up across 15 locations. The auctioneer then dials in on a mobile phone and his voice is streamed to the Internet. Sometimes as many as 8 separate auctions can be conducted simultaneously using Telebridge.
According to Jeremy Sharp, managing director of Adtec, the TeleBridge system is a versatile audio teleconferencing system, which can connect to a PABX, a voice network or directly to the local telephone exchange. It can handle internal, local, long distance and international phone traffic.
Sharp says it works by telephone hook-up which can be set up by an in-house operator, or configured as an automatic 'meet-me' call, where no operator is required. TeleBridge saves time and money associated with traveling to, and holding meetings.
The digital technology allows the user to hold one large conference or several smaller conferences with no lessening of voice quality.
The software suite also comes with several added optional extras such as PC software operator console, scheduling and booking via internet, security option using PIN codes, PC call logging software, extensive phone book and a billing information module.
Ford says that Pickles is very happy with its choice of teleconferencing software, explaining that it satisfies his company’s requirements.
According to Adtec's Jeremy Sharp, TeleBridge is used by banks, stockbrokers, government departments, corporate clients, universities, schools and associations. The system is also used for large international conferences right through to small distance education seminars.
7-Jul-2006