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© Copyright 1997-2007. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sphinx Increases Sales Efficiency andCustomer Satisfaction with KPN’sFlexiBel Managed IP PBX Powered byAlcatel-Lucent

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As a subsidiary of the world’s third-largest supplier of bathroom

fixtures (i.e., sinks, bathtubs, toilets and related fixtures and

accessories), Sphinx’s customer-facing teams are crucial to its

ongoing business.

Sphinx is the Benelux subsidiary of Sanitec Oy (see Exhibit 1). It

has 250 employees in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

It sells through three distribution channels: wholesale, installers

and direct to end users.

On joining Sphinx, Mildo van Dongen, the customer relations

manager, made improving sales and support team effectiveness one

of his key goals. At the time, Sphinx was using an outdated legacy

PBX, and calls were being routed via a reception desk staffed by

three full-time employees. The impact on customer service was

clear. In customer surveys, Sphinx rated poorly for key performance

indicators such as “mean time to respond” and “mean time for a

customer to contact the correct internal department/person.”

In conjunction with the IT team, van Dongen’s objectives from a

new PBX were:

• Reduce the time a call to the company took to get routed to the

correct individual or team. Historically, all calls were routed

through one central number via a three-person manned

receptionist desk.

• Provide access to management information related to sales and

support team metrics such as number of customer calls per day

and average length of calls. This would enable benchmarking

and performance targets for staff to be set and monitored.

• Improve customer satisfaction, which is measured by a survey

on an annual basis.

Although the demands of the business focused on improving

Sphinx’s customer-facing sales and support activities, it was critical

for the IT team that any new solution would limit the amount of

time spent internally on ongoing maintenance and support.

Sphinx Uses IT to Raise the Responsiveness of Sales and Customer Support Teams

Caroline Ashley, Enterprise Research Senior Analyst | September 2007

A 250-employee European manufacturer and distributor uses KPN’s FlexiBel Managed IP PBX to improve theresponsiveness of customer-facing teams, while reducing IT administrative costs.

The FlexiBel Managed IP PBX improves the sales and support experience for Sphinx’s new and existing customers.

SMBs with legacy PBXs that are considering migrating to a new communication system

Case Study:

The Bottom Line:

Who Should Read:

Exhibit 1Company InformationSource: Yankee Group, 2007

Company Name

CorporateHeadquarters

Industry Type

2007 Employees

Sphinx (Benelux subsidiary of Sanitec Oy)

Maastricht, Netherlands

Designs, manufactures and markets bathroom ceramics, and bath and shower products

250

This custom publication has been sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent.

Exhibit 2KPN’s Value Proposition to SphinxSource: Yankee Group, 2007

More efficient end-customer contact

Management information reporting capabilities

Out-tasked maintenance

Greater effectiveness of end-customer relationship management through tailored customer contact routing strategies

Providing SMBs with extensive reporting capabilities on customer contact and inter-company communications

Reduce SMB IT operation and maintenance resources by out-tasking all IP PBX system upgrades, troubleshooting and problem resolution, 24/7

End-User ValueProposition Highlights of the KPN Solution

In researching potential suppliers, Mr. van Dongen led the

selection process—from identifying the priority criteria, issuing

an RFP and the final selection of KPN and its FlexiBel Managed

IP PBX (see Exhibit 2 on previous page). The IT and finance

department both supported him.

Two of the priority criteria for Sphinx were the ability of the PBX

to have call-queuing capabilities and for the queuing order to be

changed according to the importance or urgency of customers and

their issues. Mr. van Dongen’s research included speaking with

reference customers from different vendors and service providers.

Critical success factors for Sphinx in the successful

implementation of the FlexiBel Managed IP PBX were:

• Fully operational system from day-one implementation:

It was critical for Sphinx for all features to be fully functional

from day-one installation, rather than a staged rollout of

functionality and features.

• User training: Immediately following installation, all users

were provided with comprehensive training on the use of the

new system. Although with hindsight, Mr. van Dongen advises

other businesses to train before installation to ensure a

seamless transition for the customer base.

With the successful implementation of the FlexiBel Managed IP

PBX service, Sphinx achieved its aim to increase the efficiency

of the sales and support organizations, with the following results

(see Exhibit 3 and Exhibit 4):

• Cost savings through administrative staff reduction:

The number of receptionists was reduced from three to one

because calls were being routed automatically, instead of

manually. Based on the local labor market, this provided an

estimated cost savings of €40,000 to €60,000 per year.

• Greater efficiency of sales and customer support resources:

To improve customer satisfaction, Sphinx wished to improve

efficiencies across its sales and support organization. With

performance metrics transparency, Sphinx was able to identify

staff with low customer focus. Also, with more efficient call

routing, it was further able to reduce inefficiencies in

management of customer calls. Together, these two factors

enabled it to reduce headcount by 20% while still working

toward its customer service targets.

• IT resources freed up: Time saved on IT administration as

upgrades, troubleshooting and problem resolution is managed

by KPN on a 24x7 basis. For a typical midsize company, this

can represent an 8% to 15% reduction in the total time spent

managing a PBX, allowing IT staff to be redeployed to address

more urgent IT business issues.

2 © Copyright 1997-2007. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

September 2007

Exhibit 3Sphinx’s Realized Benefits of Using KPN’s FlexiBel Managed IPPBX ServiceSource: Yankee Group, 2007

Critical Success Factors

Benefits

The Solution

Soft Benefits Hard BenefitsReduction in receptionists from three to one because calls are being routed with the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), instead of manual routing. An estimated annual cost savings of up to 60,000

Availability of sales/support staff performance benchmarks, from usage performance reports

KeyBenefits

Increased customer satisfaction as sales and support responsiveness increased

More efficient use of customer-facing resources, leading to a 20% reduction in required sales and support teams

An estimated 8% to 15% time savings in administering a PBX communication system

Exhibit 4Challenge, Solution and Value Source: Yankee Group, 2007

Challenge Solution Value

Increase efficiency of sales teams and improve customer satisfaction by improved routing of customer calls while relieving the internal IT team of administration and maintenance

KPN's FlexiBel Managed IP PBX service provides ACD capabilities with associated management reports to improve sales/support team performance, with no additional IT resources needs

Sphinx has increased customer satisfaction and reduced costs by more efficient routing of customer calls

3© Copyright 1997-2007. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

September 2007

• Improved management information: The availability of

sales and support staff performance metrics gives management

better benchmarks for objective setting and measurement.

• Stronger customer relationships: Customer satisfaction

increased as sales and support responsiveness increased thanks

to a more effective customer contact experience:

— Experience before: Customer calls, receptionist answers,

transfer to sales rep, no answer, back to reception, transfer

to another sales rep, inadvertent hang up, customer may

call back, etc.

— Experienc after: Customer calls sales rep, leaves

voicemail, call quickly returned.

• Link business objectives with IP PBX investment. Consider

what your business objectives are and then integrate these

business objectives in defining the requirements for any new

technology investment. Don’t limit the decision-making

process to the IT team; also consider the company’s business

unit priorities.

• Train the whole staff on the new system before going live.

This will enable a smooth transition for staff, which will

consequently provide a better experience for customers.

• Pilot the new system before going live. Instead of being

pressured to transition transparently between the legacy and

new system, a pilot will enable a full live test of all features

and functionality.

Recommendations for SMBs

© Copyright 1997-2007. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

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