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Gone are the days of being tied to the office desk. The ability to work from anywhere is now key to business performance. Customers expect the better service that mobility brings, employees want the flexibility it offers, and businesses can seize the advantages of responding faster.
Yet all these benefits depend on the quality of the mobile network, as NHP understood only too well.
As a leading provider of electrical engineering products and services, their operations cover wide areas of metropolitan and regional Australia. Whether it’s for customer sales or service, employees need to access corporate systems at will.
As technology evolves, so do innovative businesses
NHP Electrical was forward-thinking in its adoption of technology, gradually moving away from on-premises systems to virtual platforms. They had replaced their on-premises contact centre with the Genesys PureCloud platform, and other critical applications like Microsoft 365, Teams, Microsoft Dynamics 365—as well as their ERP systems—were now all in the cloud.
However, these cloud applications were being run in tandem with ageing devices limiting employees from realising the full potential of on-demand access to cloud applications in real-time from more places. So, when it was time to refresh the mobile fleet, NHP was keen to explore new possibilities.
Adapting to the times
After discussions with their telecommunications partner, Schepisi Communications, NHP realised the value of using 5G devices to harness the power of Telstra’s 5G network. This would help them keep up in an increasingly fast-paced business world and support their increasingly disparate and hybrid workforce with fast connectivity
The Telstra 5G network offers superior capacity for faster data speeds, even in congested areas. In addition, latency is minimised so applications respond with less lag. Telstra also offers the widest 5G footprint in Australia, covering both regional and city areas.
NHP don’t just use mobile phones with 5G, they also tether their laptops to the phones. Staff can do more complicated tasks on the laptop, while enjoying full connectivity to their corporate systems.
As part of the solution, Schepisi Communications recommended Telstra’s Adaptive Mobility plans. Adaptive Mobility is simple and modular, with flexible month-to-month plans tiered by data and speed. Generous data allowances are included with no excess data usage fees.
When it came to upgrading their teams to the latest 5G enabled devices, NHP worked with Moorup, Telstra's sustainability buy-back partner, to trade-in their old devices.
Moorup collected 483 devices of which 96.5% had their data securely erased and reused, and the rest recycled via Mobile Muster. Not only did this reduce the cost of their new devices but also achieved their sustainability goals, keeping old devices out of landfill.
With e-waste growing at three times faster than household waste in Australia, NHP was proud to not have contributed to the problem in FY22.
The power of partnership
When the roll-out of the 5G devices occurred, the COVID-19 pandemic started to escalate. Not only did NHP now have an even greater need to support their teams remotely and enable Hybrid Working, but also the challenge of a virtual deployment of their new solution (this may need rewording. Thankfully, NHP could rely on the experience of Schepisi Communications, a whole-of- business Telstra partner for thirty years.
Much of the roll-out had to be done remotely. Nevertheless, by using the NHP distribution network, the project was completed in the space of approximately two months, a great result under the circumstances.
Responding in the moment
The adoption of 5G has made a significant improvement to the way NHP staff work in the field. Previously, many had difficulties connecting to their cloud applications and critical business information.
Today, that problem is no longer an issue. NHP Account Representatives can now easily access product specifications and pricing on the go, delivering quotes while they’re with customers. Before, they often had to return to the office to do so,
“People now have the speeds to use their devices effectively…to access the ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics 365 system and sales platform to quote pricing and specifications on the spot”,
Lachlan Spittle, Cloud and Infrastructure Manager at NHP.