Office Depot

Stationery giant makes savings with Open Text Fax Server, RightFax Edition

Office Depot is recognised as a world leader in stationery and office products. The company’s best-known brand is Niceday, but the 7000+ items in their catalogue also include computer consumables, print management and office furnishings.

Part of an international group, Office Depot has 25 locations in the UK with 5000 employees. They have close to a 60% market share, with major customers including BT, Lloyds TSB, many local councils and NHS trusts.

The Products

Since 2002, the company has bought Open Text Fax Server with SAP connector and integration with Microsoft Exchange, AVST CallXpress and Text Message Server from Avanquest.

The Challenges

Rob Dore is telecommunications analyst for Office Depot. He and his team in Andover, Hampshire, are responsible for all the company’s communications including nearly 1000 mobile phones and 2000 land lines.

Rob first contacted Avanquest to see if they could offer a solution to a specific problem within the 500-strong sales force who deal with customers and potential customers across the UK. As they are on the road most of the time, it was essential to streamline their messaging functionality and give them increased access to telephone and email messages.

A second challenge was to try and update the system for receiving orders and issuing invoices by fax. At Office Depot’s Andover Customer Service Centre alone, 28 fax machines were in constant use, taking thousands of orders every day – a system which was proving labour intensive and very costly.

The Solution

Communications with the sales team were revolutionised by Avanquest’s CallXpress unified messaging. This has given staff access to all their messages, voicemail, faxes and e-mail, by phone, networked PC or the Internet. The system also integrates with MS Exchange and Lotus Notes. All types of message can be picked up easily from a phone, mobile, laptop or PC, so that the chances of someone missing a vital message are now virtually nil.

Rob Dore, Telecommunications Analyst “In the first eight months of 2004 we cut our overheads by up to £6000 a month, helping to increase our profit margins, and I am confident that some of this can be attributed to the use of Fax Server” Rob said: “It is a big wow factor with the sales team – it really does what it says. We offer a fantastic response to our customers and it is very unusual for something to go wrong.” He added: “All of these products really go a long way in ensuring that we continue to meet the high standards of service that our customers have come to expect.”

An answer to Office Depot’s fax problem was provided by Fax Server software. This provides all the benefits of an electronic system by automating the flow of faxes and data while allowing full integration with other core business applications.

Fax Server was installed in 2003, allowing customers to fax their orders in the same way as before, but enabling them to be received electronically by Office Depot and leading to impressive savings in time and overheads.

The Benefits

Since investing in Fax Server, Office Depot has been able to dispose of most of its fax machines, saving around £1000 a week in maintenance costs at each location.

Staff in the Customer Service Centre have seen their workload reduce, allowing them to spend more time processing orders – with a corresponding increase in speed of despatch and accuracy.

Rob Dore says: “In the first eight months of 2004 we cut our overheads by up to £6000 a month, helping to increase our profit margins, and I am confident that some of this can be attributed to the use of Fax Server.”

Even bigger savings are on the way. Office Depot have recently bought Avanquest’s SAP connector to integrate Fax Server with their financial systems, allowing invoices to be sent out by fax. As around 40000 invoices are sent out each month by post, costing 33p each, this will save over £100000 a year and give the company an enviable return on its investment.