Ureblock exports its business success with Avaya Aura 8

After the incorporation of Aura 8 and eight videoconferencing units of equipment, Ureblock achieved a more formal business communication, effective internal collaboration, a precise understanding of the needs of its different plants and an immediate way to solve problems of service quality, which allows it to compete in the United States, Canada and Central America.

40 years developing businesses

Furniture here, there and everywhere.

Ureblock is a Mexican company that was founded over 40 years ago in the city of Guadalajara, serving the home furnishings market. As a manufacturer of flexible polyurethane foam, polyester fiber and fabric, it was soon considered one of the most important suppliers within that range of products.

Over time, it incorporated other materials such as cardboard, polyethylene and plastic to generate new products. “We make our own raw material such as fabric, polyester fiber and adhesives. We manufacture packaging products such as plastic bags, cardboard, wood and polyethylene for our springs that are used in the mattress industry – where we make 95% of the supplies that a mattress contains – as well as in the furniture, shoemaking, automotive and packaging sectors,” says Adrián Becerra Romero, Commercial Director of Ureblock.

“We raise our quality standards, and we look for new markets; that is how we learned to work with international companies. When the electronic cluster was established in the city in the nineties, we participated in the electronic equipment protection business,” he adds.

Today, Ureblock has eight production plants distributed throughout the Mexican Republic, three of them located in Tecate, Ciudad Juárez and Monterrey, which work directly for the U.S. market, the most relevant together with Canada. The factory in León, Guanajuato, is focused on the automotive and shoemaking industries; the one in Puebla serves Mexico City and the south of the country; while Mérida comprises the entire Yucatan Peninsula and seeks to join the Central American and Caribbean markets.

Always at the forefront

“As an organization, we re-invest in new buildings and machinery every year. We are recognized for having long-term relationships, which allows us to attract new customers and continue growing,” says Becerra Romero.

The successful national and international development of the company is based on the values it shares with its employees: offering quality products and in a timely manner. Always staying at the forefront, innovating and integrating new processes, represents the challenge of incorporating the best technology, particularly on the subject of communication.

“Having effective communication with both external customers as well as the Ureblock staff has been essential,” says José Gildardo Flores, IT Director. “In the beginning, we had an analog switchboard for basic telephone communication. With the growth in Guadalajara, and later in León, Mérida and Monterrey, we had internal communication through switchboards, but it was expensive to make long distance calls.

“In 2011, we switched to IP technology, through four switches. Today, we saw the need to incorporate new technologies and communication methods. The Sales staff is today in Guadalajara, tomorrow in another city and some other day perhaps in the United States, and should always be available for customers through secure business communication. Another of the needs was to have face-to-face communication, by videoconference,” says Gildardo Flores.

20 years of fruitful relationship

OneKey Systems, Avaya’s Business Partner, supported them in the process of finding a technology partner to help them in this regard. “Ureblock conducted the cost-benefit assessment process with three suppliers,” says Fanny Núñez, Commercial and Pre-sales Director of that company. “We have known Ureblock since 2012 and its growth process, and that has made us understand what the best solution proposal would be. We gave them a day of sessions in the Avaya facilities showroom in Masaryk; they saw the families of Aura and IP Office, mobility and other technologies.”

Once the decision was made, as of November 2018 they carried out the analysis of the architecture and the adaptations to send the telephone lines to the data center. “In March, we began implementation and finished it at the end of May. It took place in two days: we canceled the previous services and added the new ones; we installed survival cards and the following day, at 11 in the morning, we had all the places interconnected,” says José Gildardo Flores.

The technological renovation included the Aura 8 version, which provided them with unified communications, mobility and videoconferencing. They switched to virtualized voice servers with centralized management, offering greater benefits such as mitigating costs and high availability in the corporate sector and at each plant. The strategy of having the communication systems virtualized allows you to have triple protection, so that if you lose the links you will revive them with high availability.

They installed Softphones to optimize costs at the corporate office, Vantage phones for management levels and video conferencing for face-to-face communication between plants with Scopia Desktop XT 5000, not only from point-to-point but also people can be integrated from softphones, smartphones or laptops.

Competing in demanding markets

Zero claims

“Now that the new technology is installed, we are no longer experiencing deficiencies in telephone calls,” highlights Adrián Becerra Romero. “We had problems with customers who contacted us and said that we did not answer and the calls were cut off. Approximately 170 calls were lost and approximately 130 were cut off per week. Today we no longer have any complaints from them that they cannot communicate or that no one will answer them.”

Gildardo Flores admits: “60% of the calls we made between branches or plants were cut off, there was a lot of intermittent service or there was not enough quality. We only found out about it when someone complained to us because they had to call the cell phone or look for other means of communication. Now it is 0%, they are functional and successful calls.”

“In a world where you have to be present at all times,” assures the Commercial Director, “the fact that calls reach our extension and are redirected directly to the cell phone is a great plus. Except when we are on a flight, we are always in touch, using just one device. We used to have to carry several pieces of equipment and still didn’t receive the calls when we were out. That represents one of the great advantages that allows us to be at a high level and to compete in very demanding markets where they are also very well connected.”

Face-to-face

With the incorporation of eight video conferencing units of equipment nationwide, more formal, corporate, face-to-face communication and effective internal collaboration were achieved. “It allows us to understand the needs of the different departments, address process improvements, immediately resolve service quality issues, which previously took us weeks. Ureblock has always worked on generating internal quality in its processes and then taking it abroad,” says Adrián Becerra. The demand for this tool reaches high levels and videoconferencing rooms are used 95% of the time, and it is necessary to schedule in advance.

The main benefit they have obtained is the reduction in what was invested in travel. “The fact that key people can communicate with all plants and make decisions at the same time enabled us to streamline processes. We also integrated Outlook and we can schedule periodic weekly meetings through videoconferencing.”

“Today we see the sales and collections representatives face-to-face, because it’s not the same talking on the phone and not knowing if they are paying attention to you. That enabled us to streamline and be more efficient in all internal processes,” he emphasizes.

From the business point of view, they can prospect, have meetings or conferences with clients who are abroad, and not have to go visit them or have them come to resolve simple issues. “Having the same technology as they do, shows that Ureblock is not some small outfit, but rather a serious company,” says the Commercial Director.

Virtual Backup

Gildardo Flores agrees to the role played by Business Partner OneKey. “They understand the business and what our priorities are. Every time we have an incident they look for a way to resolve it. Avaya is a very stable technology. They used to be boxes, now they are virtual servers that help us have high availability, support the virtual machines that we generate and the ability to recover very quickly from a failure in each of the sites.

“Among our future plans, we plan to acquire a couple more units of videoconferencing equipment for two new plants. We consider acquiring Wi-Fi desk phones for the operational areas where it is difficult to have a phone due to the cost of wiring. These new additions will help us reduce operating costs and be more efficient, by being at the forefront,” says Adrián Becerra.

Challenge

To incorporate new communication technologies and methods so that Sales personnel who constantly travel, even abroad, are always reachable and have face-to-face communication via video conferencing

Solution

Avaya Aura Suite version 8, Avaya Softphone, Avaya Vantage phones, Scopia Desktop XT 5000, Avaya Equinox Mobile, Avaya One-X, Avaya Breeze Platform

More information

For more information, call 01 800 713 80 81 or (55) 52 78 7700. www.avaya.com.

Acerca de OneKey Systems

Ureblock is a Mexican company in operation over 40 years. It is considered to be one of the most important suppliers for the furniture, mattress, shoemaking, automotive and packaging industries. Today, it has eight manufacturing plants distributed throughout the Mexican Republic, three of which are focused on the North American market, one of which on Central America and the Caribbean. www.ureblock.com.mx

About OneKey Systems

It is a technology consulting company dedicated to developing, implementing, supporting and maintaining solutions based on best practices and tools that allow for the evolution, optimization and operation of platforms, facilitating the improvement of communications, collaboration and processes of its customers. It is a company that is renowned for excellence, focused on bringing its customers to the forefront of digital technology, through reliable and profitable solutions. www.onekeysystems.com.mx

Value Provided

The mobility solution allows you to always be in touch with the Sales staff. In addition, a drastic reduction of investment in travel was achieved, streamlining processes and decision-making, through videoconferencing, as well as competing in very demanding markets.