New - Today the
station building is
home to a high tech
marketing company. case studies c O                  rckid is a full services marketing
                 communications company providing
                 design and packaging solutions to a
number of household name brands including a
poster service to all Kentucky Fried Chicken
outlets. During 2002 the company had grown to around
thirty-five staff and needed to find new premises
from which to operate. What they found was a
piece of history. In the early 1960s hundreds of branch railways
and stations throughout the UK were closed as a
result of the ‘Beeching Report’ into the future of
rail transport. Staines West station and the small
branch line it served was one of those shut down
as a result. By 2002 the original station building
had seen many changes but had recently been
redeveloped to a high standard for office use. Mark Rodick, Managing Director of Orckid,
decided the old station was perfect for his
business and, because there was no
telecommunications systems in place, called a
meeting with Tony Parish, head of reseller G3, to
establish what was required. “We had worked closely with Tony Parish at our
previous premises and with a blank canvas to
work from at the station we needed to discuss the
options open to us,” commented Mark Rodick.   “Our communications needs at Orckid are
straightforward, often our services are required to
meet fast turnarounds and tight print deadlines so
reliability was a key factor in any communications
set-up we decided upon. Clearly we needed a
system that was scalable, could provide Internet
and email integration, voice mail and flexible call
answering options.” This last point was crucial as Orckid did not want Seasoned channel
player Tony Parish
demonstrates that
customer relationships
built upon service can lead to repeat business. a dedicated receptionist or single answering
point, preferring instead to distribute the
incoming calls in rotation among five nominated
key answering positions. Parish recommended that Orckid install a
SpliceCom maximiser PBX which would offer all
the integration required, in-built voice mail and
call distribution. The issue of reliability however was not proven,
as this was to be the first commercial installation
of the maximiser system. Rodick was assured by
G3 that the system had undergone extensive field
trials and decided to proceed. “There were one or two issues that had to be
resolved post installation”, said Rodick, “but
SpliceCom and G3 were all over us with support
and quickly put things right. G3 were particularly
helpful when it came to user training on the
integrated voicemail and made sure we had and
understood all the user guides.” Six months after installation Mark Rodick
commented, “The SpliceCom maximiser has
worked well for Orckid and we are pleased with
call distribution which has been aided by the
maximiser’s ability to display calling line identity
on the plain ordinary phones we are currently
using. With regards to future expansion of the
functionality we are very interested in exploring
what we can do with the new SpliceCom PCS400
phones. Part of the service that we offer clients is
web design and the fact that the PCS displays
web pages means that we could develop intranet
services for clients and show them how
information can be pushed to their desktops very
easily.” The installation of a leading edge new PBX system
such as the maximiser at Orckid demonstrates
that the applications for these systems need not
be restricted to all singing and dancing solutions
– the system works just as well, and is cost
effective even in less demanding installations. Internet Meets the Steam Age Old - Staines West Station at the end of the 19th Century Tony Parish
of G3 July 2003 COMMS FORD 1 P48-66  20/6/03  8:32 AM  Page 57