Supernova Award Category

Tech Optimization and Modernization

The Problem

From the first day it opened its doors for business, Xero had big goals to expand to 10+ countries in 10 years in order to reach more customers. Like many fast-growing companies, our IT team encountered major obstacles in scaling our telephony infrastructure with the speed, reliability, and cost efficiency we needed to support our expanding office network. As a result, Xero inherited a hodgepodge of on-premise PBX systems that were underutilized by staff and extremely costly to maintain. As the company continued to expand, we were also challenged to set up new offices within a faster timeframe and within smaller budgets - something that was just not possible to do with today’s pre-packaged on-premise solutions.  

That’s when we realized we needed to think outside of the box in order to solve this very real business problem. We needed a central communications platform that would enable our business to continue to expand into new markets at a rapid pace without breaking the bank.

The Solution

Xero’s own technology promise is grounded in the cloud, so we knew that a software-first communications strategy was key to getting ahead and cutting costs.

Traditional voice technology requires multiple steps to a successful deployment and creates many authentication challenges. Time to set up a new system can take months and requires one full time IT admin to maintain it on-site, which seriously hindered us.

We also needed to adopt new tools that would add value to our thriving business and support our increasingly mobile workplace. Whether working on-the-go or across international teams, our employees needed to be able to connect and collaborate at all times.

Dialpad was the only cloud-based platform that eliminated all of our challenges. The solution can be deployed in seconds and provisioned from any location. The app is also easy to use and combines Voice, Messaging, Video, and Meetings, and Google Apps for Work, to empower our mobile workers.

The results

Xero has reaped enormous cost benefits by switching to Dialpad. Where we previously spent $400 per phone, we now save hundreds of thousands of dollars by powering all of our workers’ communications in the cloud and ditching the deskphone no one uses. We have also rapidly deployed in new offices in minutes. This has saved us approximately $500,000+ on IT costs to install in new locations, and we now no longer need a full-time IT staff member on-site to manage each system.

The productivity shift for employee end users and our IT team was also immense when we moved to a cloud communications platform. More than 500 of our employees were up and running with Dialpad in a matter of days, integrating seamlessly into our existing Anywhere Worker IT Stack. We’ve enabled our mobile workers to get their jobs done faster and more efficiently. The native integration with G Suite and Salesforce allows IT to seamlessly connect three mission-critical tools. This simply wasn’t possible with other vendors. Once deployed, employees were able to log in with their Google credentials and view recent emails, shared documents, and upcoming calendar events, right inside the Dialpad app. Dialpad also pulls in data from LinkedIn and other tools, making work easier for different departments and users, and admin simple, scalable, and secure for IT.

Metrics

With Dialpad, we’ve been able to kill 100% of our desk phones at Xero and in the process, have offered new levels of support for our our mobile workforce. When we implemented Dialpad, there were no upfront costs or lengthy setup time, rather, we were able to get our communications network established in just a few days. We had the ability to deploy new locations within a day, as opposed to months. So far, Xero has seen $500,000+ annual telephony cost savings, which is a lot for a growing startup. On top of this, we have reduced the number of IT staff working on arduous admin tasks from 10 to just 1 who is responsible for any ad hoc needs. This has enabled our IT team to focus on bigger strategic initiatives.

Beyond the massive cost savings though, the uptake of telephony communications among our employees has nearly doubled with the implementation of Dialpad. Our colleagues are also using Dialpad to collaborate in new ways and on a global scale - sharing information and new processes via different integrated tools that are faster and more reliable. It has definitely contributed to our business’ overall productivity and efficiency.

The Technology

Dialpad is a learning Business Communications Cloud platform that’s helping build the connected company of the future. It empowers employees to talk, text, make video calls, and meet online with customers and colleagues on anywhere, on any device. The only communications system built on Google Cloud Platform, Dialpad also seamlessly integrates with productivity and cloud apps including Microsoft Office 365 and G Suite.

Disruptive Factor

At the forefront of today’s technology trends, we strive for the same level of innovation for our IT stack. We use tech that is cloud-first. Yet, when it came to communications, we were stuck in the old world like the many enterprises that currently spend an average of $8.1 million annually on telephony products and services even though employees need a new approach. To support our growing international employees base and ensure new locations were able to hit the ground from the outset, we went against the status quo of a typical enterprise and ripped out our telephony backbone, replacing it with Dialpad—a pure-cloud technology—that was the most innovative solution we evaluated for our business needs. Taking this risk to completely throw out the rule book on a traditional communications strategy sets us apart from those who claim to be tech leaders. Implementation was easy, since Dialpad’s native integration to G Suite is seamless over the Internet. But as no other communications platform can do this, it forced a company culture shift to fully embrace the power of Dialpad. When employees are not bound to a desk by way of a phone or computer, a behavioral change is required. We empower our teams to work in the style that’s best for them; a freedom that many had to adjust to in their own way before we saw a massive uptick in mobile collaboration across departments.

Shining Moment

For years telephony was a thorn in our side and lagging behind our digital initiatives. We always wanted to innovate globally, but it seemed impossible with current technology or an eye watering amount of investment. Meanwhile we were doing the exact opposite with all our other applications by moving them to the cloud. To be honest, we had given up and resigned ourselves to “old school” systems. To see that problem solved is extremely gratifying. No more ugly desk phones too!