The Background
Yara UK is a crop nutrition and precision farming business offering farmers across the world the chance to increase yields and improve their product quality while also reducing their environmental impact. Yara’s mission is simple yet ambitious; to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet. Its Industrial Solutions offer products to improve both air quality and reduce emissions.
Based in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, Yara has a worldwide presence with 16,000 employees across the globe and operations in over 60 countries. It’s UK production consists of eight solid fertilizer sites across the country with another six liquid fertiliser production plants. Its YaraVita nutrition products are also manufactured and distributed globally from Pocklington, East Yorkshire, where the company’s analytical laboratory is also situated.
The Challenge
Yara was looking to reduce costs on both its fixed phone lines as well as its mobile fleet. At its sites in Grimsby and Pocklington, Yara previously had onsite Nortel CS1000 PABX systems with around 140 desk phones. It also wanted to look at its Immingham site which didn’t have any existing telecoms on site.
David Tomkinson, Operations Director at Yara UK said: “We were experiencing reliability issues and the speed of repairs once we’d experienced a hardware failure wasn’t great. Administration of the system was also complex and costs were high.
“We wanted a more flexible system, which was easier to maintain and administer. We also wanted our new phone system to combine our two receptions across our two sites and we wanted improved customer service from our new supplier.”
The Solution
Yara received proposals from seven telecoms companies and narrowed its search down to two new suppliers, of which Daisy was one.
Clyde Dealtry, Lead IT Site Support at Yara UK said: “We chose Daisy because of its continued help and support during the process. We were also impressed by the flexibility and patience shown to us not to mention the cost savings and the great customer service which had been demonstrated to us.”
Yara is transitioning to Microsoft Teams within Office 365 and, as a result, Daisy proposed Microsoft Teams Direct Routing which will provide all Yara users with a PSTN breakout solution. Daisy also proposed an AudioCodes Mediant Virtual Edition (VE) Session Border Controller (SBC) to be deployed to allow the existing Yara DDI ranges to be used by the Teams users.
Clyde added: “We don’t see Yara returning to pre COVID-19 working conditions as a business and instead see our employees working from home for all or some of the time. As a business, we had to make changes and the implementation gave Yara immediate benefits. Our DDI fixed phone numbers were no longer fixed to an office desk which meant that our homeworkers could answer their phones no matter where they were working.”
The Result
Following the installation, the global pandemic struck. However, for Yara the pandemic gave it chance to assess their new solution.
David explained: “The new solution from Daisy made remote and home working considerably easier. A customer can now ring the office and be seamlessly transferred without the customer ever knowing the receiver is working at home. Our office reception can also be covered from home and our desk phones are now hardly ever used.”
Switching from a desk and mobile solution to Microsoft Teams Direct Routing has demonstrated huge cost savings in the region of £40,000 pa and, despite COVID-19 bringing some delays to the project, consistent weekly updates were given to Yara to keep everyone updated and informed.
Clyde said: “Throughout the COVID-19 delays, the technical lead on the project was excellent and demonstrated exceptional knowledge of our solution and offered solid advice throughout the project. Our system is in place and working as expected. It gives us the flexibility we needed and, so far, the reliability that we looked for. We also have excellent customer service, and the Daisy portal is giving us the administration for managing both our DDI numbers and our mobile fleet.
“We have enjoyed a good experience with Daisy so far from account management through project management, installation, testing and support and would certainly recommend Daisy to other businesses looking for a telecoms solution.”