Transition to digital helps House of Travel contain costs and increase productivity
One of New Zealand’s leading travel agencies, House of Travel, is taking advantage of the latest digital communication
solutions provided by Gen-i to increase productivity and cut costs across their nationwide network of offices.
Dave Veronese, House of Travel’s CIO, says the company has benefited from improved staff performance and significant
cost savings since initiating a move from a traditional system to a combination of Gen-i Voice Connect and Microsoft
Lync 2013.
Voice Connect is Gen-i’s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) voice communication service that delivers high audio quality,
connects with either an in-house or hosted PBX and can be readily integrated with other ICT services.
“When we first looked at switching to Voice Connect and deploying Lync as our corporate PBX, there were few other
organisations in New Zealand that had made the transition,” Veronese explains. “While that puts us at the bleeding edge
of new technologies, it does give access to the very latest functionality and ensures we are able to take advantage of
new releases and advances for many years to come.”
“We’re passionate about seeking out and sharing new travelling experiences for our New Zealand customers, and Voice
Connect enables us to increase the speed at which our people can communicate and access information anywhere and at any
time, to help them achieve that goal.”
Veronese says he is focused helping the business to innovate and grow and make its stores modern workspaces that blend
the latest mobility and collaboration technologies.
He says staff in the House of Travel stores particularly appreciate the removal of clunky desk phones, which have
largely been replaced by wireless Bluetooth VoIP headsets for a more tidy and modern workspace. They also benefit from
the growing use of video conferencing that Voice Connect supports.
“Our staff are enjoying the mobility and flexibility that comes with this new way of working, such as being able to work
from home, participate in video meetings remotely and easily make calls while travelling,” says Veronese.
House of Travel operates under a joint venture business model, with Dave’s team providing ICT services that support 1150
people across 80 sites, including retail stores, corporate division Orbit Travel, online sales and the central holdings
company.
In 2013, he converged all of the business’ IT and telecommunications contracts and negotiated a group solution that
would deliver cost savings and allow them to quickly rollout new technologies.
Following a competitive tender, House of Travel renewed its voice, mobile and data services contract with Gen-i in
January 2013, extending their long standing relationship by another three years. It supplements an existing contract
with Revera, now part of Gen-i, for its data centre hosting in Christchurch and Auckland.
With ten stores migrated by the end of 2013, and another dozen keen to transition, Veronese says the pipeline is growing
as the House of Travel stores hear about the benefits of the new voice and unified communications platform. “We met our
target of migrating 100 users by the end of 2013, and expect to easily exceed our target of 350 users by the end of
2014,” he concludes.
ENDS