Community Journals Case Study

Community Journals employees were telecommuting while waiting to occupy their new building. With Fusion Connect Business Voice, the company is under one roof.

Collaboration Solutions

“With [Fusion Connect] Hosted Voice, our employees can make and receive calls using their business lines from multiple devices, and we can contact each other at our homes and offices with 4-digit dialing, all for less than we were paying before.”

—Holly Hardin, Operations Manager, Community Journals

Download the Community Journal Case Study

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The Challenge

  • Upgrade Community Journals’ phone system to address the requirements of a remote workforce, so calls are conducted like those in a traditional office
  • Enhance productivity using modern calling features
  • Reduce overall cost-of-ownership, specifically with regard to hardware expenses

The Solution

  • Fusion Connect Hosted Voice for seamless, “in-office” voice communications capabilities – regardless of where employees are based
  • Productivity-boosting voice services like Audio Conferencing, Fusion Anywhere, and Auto Attendant
  • New Poly IP desk phones

The Results

  • Community Journals’ staffers – including reporters and production managers – conduct business from home while connecting as if they work in the same building
  • Advertisers, supply-chain partners and other associates now see “Community Journals” on their Caller ID, no matter where the employee is calling from
  • Advanced calling features enhance communications and collaboration, driving up productivity
  • Fusion Connect support teams are available around-the-clock to respond to any phone service questions, such as how to input PINs and other operational codes. “[Fusion Connect] never, ever leaves me hanging,” says Holly Hardin, Operations Manager, Community Journals
  • Simple 4-digit dialing to reach employees, regardless of their location

A Transitional State

The majority of Community Journals employees were telecommuting while the company waited to occupy new headquarters in Fall 2014. The move away from a traditional office environment and phone system meant that work-from-home employees used their mobile or home phones to make important calls to advertisers, news sources, and vendors.

Callers, in turn, would not see on Caller ID that the call was official business from Community Journals, sometimes returning messages late at night on employees’ home phones.

Looking for a better way to conduct business, Community Journals turned to Fusion Connect Hosted Voice and Fusion Connect partner XtraNET Inc., a Hosted Voice reseller.

Fusion Connect Hosted Voice has transformed the way that Community Journals’ staff communicates both internally and externally. “With [Fusion Connect] Hosted Voice, our remote workforce can make calls and ‘Community Journals’ appears on the recipients’ screens, just as if we were calling from our offices,” Hardin says.

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Smoother Connections

Callers faced a challenge when trying to directly contact Community Journals staff including reporters, sales, and production. “We didn’t really have a receptionist,” Hardin says. “So if the caller reached me at my home but needed to speak with someone else on our team, I’d have to give them the correct number and ask them to hang up and redial. We wanted callers to have a more professional experience.”

Fusion Connect Hosted Voice allows for the instant transfer of calls to the right party. “Callers reach our designated receptionist, who forwards the caller to the person they’re seeking,” Hardin says. “We didn’t have this before. Today, they think we’re under one roof. They have no idea that I’m actually 30 miles away, at home.”

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Quick Dialing Makes for Great Convenience

For a seamless, professional calling experience regardless of location, employees simply dial four digits from their phones to reach a colleague. “Dialing four digits rather than nine to reach anyone on staff is a real benefit,” says Hardin.

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Conference Call Bliss

Hardin and her production team are planning to make extensive use of advanced calling features such as Audio Conferencing. The team huddles twice a week to make sure ads are all submitted and properly placed.

“With the Audio Conferencing feature in [Fusion Connect] Hosted Voice, there is no longer a need to conduct ad planning sessions in several, disjointed two-party conversations,” says Hardin. “Having everyone together accomplishes this twice-weekly task much more quickly and lets us move onto other tasks.”

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Impressive Installation Spreads “Holiday Cheer”

The Fusion Connect installation couldn’t have come at a more hectic time: Dec. 23, 2013. For Community Journals, however, it felt like any other week, thanks to the Fusion Connect professional installation.

“[Fusion Connect] got all of the phones hooked up and everything done without any interruptions, whatsoever,” says Hardin. “Somehow, they just made it happen. I considered this my Christmas present to my coworkers.”

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Who is Community Journals?

A Greenville, SC, institution since 1999, Community Journals takes pride in delivering “100% local” news publications. These include UBJ (Upstate Business Journal), the area’s only business news magazine; At Home; Town; Behind the Counter; and the weekly Greenville Journal newspaper. “Our readers get exactly what they need to stay current with the news and find out about important business trends,” says Hardin.

Industry
Journalism

Products & Services
Hosted Voice (VoIP)

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What You Can Expect From Fusion Connect

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“With [Fusion Connect] Hosted Voice, our remote workforce can make calls and ‘Community Journals’ appears on the recipients’ screens, just as if we were calling from our offices.”

Holly Hardin, Operations Manager, Community Journals

 

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