High end kitchen group looks to the future with 8x8

Lux Group Holdings is the umbrella company of Smallbone of Devizes, Mark Wilkinson Furniture, Brookmans and after recently acquiring McCarron & Co, forms a growing powerhouse of luxury kitchen design and manufacture.

The Challenge

It’s never a good time to have the plug pulled on your entire group’s phone system, and six days before Christmas is no exception.

With 150 seats down, a decision on the future had to be made quickly. “Lead generation is the lifeblood or our organisation; the longer we’re offline the longer we are starved of income, which can be catastrophic.

There was no time for the usual five to six-week lead time, we needed a quick turnaround,” says Andrew Payne, Head of IT, at Lux Group Holdings.

The Solution

From an initial call to five potential suppliers, 8x8 was the only one to provide a same-day response. “We needed someone to take control and 8x8 were motivated to help us,” says Andrew Payne. “They were also dominant in the industry and had power of scale.”

Within three days Lux Group Holdings received trial handsets to demonstrate Virtual Office to senior management. “The speed of the 8x8 provisioning and implementation was amazing. Deployment is obviously one of their greatest strengths. It’s very slick.” says Andrew Payne.

By the third week in January, Lux Group Holdings had new handsets, a new phone system and most of their numbers ported over. The process had far less impact on our business than Lux had feared.

“We also had the benefit of Virtual Office almost instantly, meaning employees could make phone calls from anywhere in the world from their personal mobiles and don’t pay for it,” says Andrew Payne.

Lux Group Holding’s takeover of bespoke kitchen and furniture brand McCarron & Co., which brought with it 41 extra staff, left the Chelsea office without broadband for five days. “Virtual Office meant we could port the company numbers to new employee’s mobile phones, allowing them to make and receive calls via our system,” says Andrew Payne.

Key Benefits

Greater business agility

As a company built on growth and acquisition, Lux Group Holdings can quickly and painlessly add seats without any downtime or adverse impact on the customer. New offices can be instantly operational.

Speed of deployment

Trial handsets were sent out within a couple of days to help make the business case to senior management. All 150 seats were up and running within 3.5 weeks, over the busy Christmas period.

Privacy and professionalism

Employees are able to make and receive calls on their mobile phones through the group’s telephone system, ensuring consistency and professionalism.

Cost savings

Lux Group Holding’s operating expenditure was cut by 35%, with the money saved being spent on a range of new handsets. It is predicted that these will be paid for within a year.

The result

With 8x8 Virtual Office, Lux Group Holdings continues to offer customers a reliable, high calibre telephone communications system expected of luxury brands. Internally, massive cost savings and investment in new handsets sets the group up for future growth and acquisitions.