Vertrax
Software Provider Boosts Efficiency, Business Intelligence, and Customer Service with RingCentral
One of our earliest wins after moving to RingCentral was that we were able to merge those three products into one. Now we have a single interface, from a single provider, for our phone service, online meetings, and call-data analytics.
Rob Ljunggren
System Administrator, Title, Vertrax
Vertrax describes itself as the technology behind propane, heating oil, and crude oil delivery. The company’s suite of cloud-based logistics applications help bulk transporters of liquid energy deliver their products to customers more efficiently, safely, and cost-effectively.
From its origins in 2002 as a small provider of route-optimization software, Vertrax has become one of the leading providers of supply chain management solutions for the liquid-energy transportation industry. The company’s success led to expansion into new locations, a growing staff across the country, and even an international office. But this rapid growth also left the company with technological and communications challenges.
INDUSTRY
High Tech
HQ
New Haven, CT
YEAR FOUNDED
2002
EMPLOYEES
50
A phone system that couldn’t meet the company’s needs
“We had several problems with our communications infrastructure, which only got more serious as the company grew,” says Rob Ljunggren, Vertrax’s System Administrator.
“One problem was that with our old phone system, employees outside the office would have to use a VPN to connect to our office—and those calls were always dropping. It happened regularly enough that it interfered with our staff’s productivity.”
“Also, we didn’t have a sophisticated call-queue process or easy routing with the old system,” Ljunggren explains. “So, when a driver with one of our customers called in for technical help and didn’t get connected to the right person quickly enough, that driver would just call our operator. That wasn’t the excellent customer service we wanted to provide.”
Yet another challenge was that as the organization grew, Vertrax signed on to different communications solutions from different vendors. “We had one solution for online meetings, an app from another company for call reporting, and still another for our phones. That complicated things from a technology standpoint, and it obviously wasn’t the most affordable way to purchase those tools, either.”
Bringing the whole company together on the RingCentral platform
Since it switched to the all-in-one cloud communications solution from RingCentral, Vertrax has solved these challenges—and gained business intelligence it never had access to before.
“One of our earliest wins after moving to RingCentral was that we were able to merge those three products into one,” says Ljunggren. “Now we have a single interface, from a single provider, for our phone service, online meetings, and call-data analytics.”
With RingCentral’s open developer platform, Ljunggren was able to use the RingCentral API to easily build his own internal process for call queues and automatic routing.
“For the first time, we’re able to quickly get prospects and customers to the right people,” he explains. “If someone is calling about our Welltrax solution, for example, RingCentral directs them to that team’s queue. If it’s a Canadian caller, we can direct them to the right team to support them there as well. It’s so much more efficient now that we’re no longer asking everyone to call in to a main line and then manually rerouting them.”
Vertrax is also finding that RingCentral lets its remote staff and its employees in the field stay connected and productive.
“Those developers who work remotely can now easily and reliably call in to our office,” Ljunggren says. “Because those connections are all going over the internet, we don’t have the VPN issues anymore.”
“Also, if there’s a snowstorm or other bad weather that makes it too difficult or dangerous for our customer support staff to come into the office, they can still be productive from home. They can log in to their RingCentral call queue and take calls right from their computer.”
Using RingCentral’s Analytics Portal and Live Reports, Vertrax has even been able to use its new phone system to more accurately forecast call traffic and staff its phones accordingly. “We’re a 24/7 operation, and we need to be properly staffed for support at all times,” says Ljunggren. “Because we’re able to monitor our traffic and review that data over time, we’ve gotten a better sense of when we can expect a spike in calls, which means bringing in more people. That helps us maintain excellent service for all of our customers without overstaffing a given shift.”
Since we rolled out RingCentral, whenever I’ve called our account rep or the tech team, I’ve always gotten terrific service. When we’re promising our own customers outstanding service around the clock, it really makes a difference for us to know that RingCentral’s support team is always there for us.
Rob Ljunggren
System Administrator, Title, Vertrax
A support team the company can rely on
“Since we rolled out RingCentral, whenever I’ve called our account rep or the tech team, I’ve always gotten terrific service. When we’re promising our own customers outstanding service around the clock, it really makes a difference for us to know that RingCentral’s support team is always there for us.”