Thing5 Cloud-based system replaces aging PBX, Voicemail and Call Accounting Systems with No Interruption to Hotel Operations or Guest Services
Springfield, MA – October 22, 2013 — Thing5, the leader in SIP Trunking, Hosted PBX and Call Center services for the hospitality industry, announced today that it has successfully completed its most recent deployment of the T5 Voice solution at a large, full service hotel.
This newest Thing5 client property is a 355 room hotel located in the New York City metropolitan area with 23,000 square feet of meeting space, two restaurants, a fitness center and pool. The hotel had spent tens of thousands of dollars in the previous twelve months on upgrades and repairs to its legacy PBX, voicemail and call accounting systems and still was not able to get reliable functionality or useful call data. Thing5’s T5 Voice offering replaced all three of the legacy phone systems.
“There was only a half-hour of downtime, as planned, shortly after midnight on the day of the installation,” remarked the property’s operations director. “Thing5’s installation process was seamless for us with no impact to guests or our team here at the property. The Thing5 hosted solution makes so much sense for us; we don’t want to deal with phone closet equipment and the related vendors and support providers – we want to take care of guests. I feel elated and relieved to have replaced our old phone system.”
As with all of its deployments, Thing5 managed all phases of the project. The Thing5 deployment process is designed specifically for hoteliers and minimizes any disruption to hotel operations. The initial phases include data collection, programming, staging and testing – all of which take place at Thing5 headquarters. New administrative phones and specialized IADs were shipped to the property the day before the cutover. The next day, two technicians completed the final, onsite phase of the deployment. Training for the property staff on how to utilize their new phones was coordinated to take place immediately before the deployment and accommodated staff schedules. The hotel kept its analog guest room phones in order to keep costs low; analog phones and associated wiring are compatible with Thing5’s hosted solution.
The property finance director had conducted a comprehensive analysis of premise based platforms and Thing5’s cloud solution. The analysis concluded that Thing5’s solution was the right choice for both short and long-term total cost of ownership, as well as overall functionality.
“The decision to go with Thing5’s T5 Voice offering was easy; the financials of purchasing a traditional system versus Thing5’s solution were better for us both immediately and long-term,” noted the finance director. ”The capital outlay was significantly lower and we’ve eliminated multiple contracts as well as future hardware and software expenses. The hotel’s monthly operating costs have decreased as a direct result of implementing Thing5’s solution. Our hotel is now positioned to add modern services such as guest smart phone integration. Our owners are very pleased with Thing5’s T5 Voice solution as a value-added infrastructure improvement.”
The hotel management and staff now have access to all call data and call disposition, allowing them to optimize staff schedules and budget accordingly.
Thing5 COO John Carey relayed that, “We are delighted to have yet another hotelier transition to our modern, cost-effective solution. As with all of our clients, this hotel will benefit financially and operationally. This latest installation is another testimony to our focus on the needs of hotel owners, operators and their guests.”
With Thing5’s solution, applications such as voicemail, automatic call distribution, audio conferencing and instant messaging are hosted in geographically redundant data centers rather than at client locations, and delivered as managed Internet Protocol (IP) services over the Web, helping to control setup and operational costs. Thing5 provides its hosted PBX platform via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Thing5’s enterprise solution utilizes burstable IP trunking; this enables on-demand sharing of under-utilized trunk capacity. Thing5 clients take advantage of its fixed rate calling, reducing their monthly telecommunications expense immediately – in most case by 40-60%.
About Thing5 LLC
Thing5 LLC is a provider of next-generation voice solutions for the hospitality industry. Its offerings allow hotels to have access to powerful, cost-effective solutions that enable unparalleled control over the voice and online channels. Solutions include call center services, hosted PBX, voicemail, auto-attendant, SIP trunking, mobile device integration solutions, social media services and support for legacy PBX systems.
Thing5’s offerings fully integrate the people and technology components of voice services, and enable access to advanced analytics for all customer voice interactions including central reservations, on-property reservations, front desk and other business lines such as restaurants and spas.
Thing5 services are delivered on a highly scalable and geographically redundant platform as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), offering better security and control, as well as highly sophisticated reporting and intelligent routing tools. Thing5 solutions are deployed at thousands of hotels and growing.
For more information, visit http://www.thing5.com.