Who are Proper Music and how did we help them?

Proper Music Group is the largest truly independent, full-service distributor of music across all formats in the UK, with annual sales of over £25 million. They supply major high street and online retailers such as Amazon and HMV.

Proper Music employs over 120 computer users, the majority of whom work in administration and management. In 2017, the company relocated to a purpose-built distribution centre, including a large warehouse, in Kent.

The challenge for our IT experts

Proper Music had a Hosted Phone System with handsets that the majority of staff used. Within their warehouse, they had an expensive DECT handset solution with 5 DECT controllers around the warehouse.

When the first lockdown hit, the admin and management teams needed to move to home working. With no soft client set up, they had reverted to using their mobile phones to talk to colleagues and customers.

As many companies have experienced, Proper Music have seen a number of benefits to flexible working during the pandemic. As such, they have decided to permanently adopt a home working model, with occasional hotdesking in the office for the majority of their staff.

They were looking for a long term, flexible and all-in-one solution with a robust infrastructure to support all of their staff.

The Solution

We had previously implemented a Microsoft 365 solution for Proper Music over five years ago and they had been light users of Microsoft Teams, using it for quick chats and meetings.

Initially, when Proper Music approached us about implementing a more flexible system, we explored using a 3rd party solution that turns Teams into a soft phone client. At the beginning of the first lockdown, we trialled this by rolling out to 20 people; however, we quickly saw that there were a number of technical issues. It was also an expensive solution.

We then looked at Microsoft Business Voice, a cloud-based VoIP solution using Microsoft Teams. We recommended it for the following reasons:

It integrates neatly into the existing Microsoft Teams stack, which would enable calls and communication to be unified on one platform.
Business Voice also has a number of other features suitable for Proper Music, including call transfer, multi-level auto attendants, call waiting and call queues.
Staff can enjoy much greater flexibility and mobility. Whether they are working from the office or from home, they can call, transfer and receive calls as normal, on any device.
Staff would be able to keep their existing main and DDI numbers.

The results

No contract term - Saved £720 p/m - Increased flexibility

We provided Proper Music with Microsoft 365 Business Voice licences, giving users access to a full phone system, calling plan and audio conferencing. We also configured the setup for across the business to suit their requirements.

Given that staff were using Microsoft Teams, very little training was required and staff found it easy to use straight away, no matter what device they were using or wherever they were based.

The challenge for our IT experts

The services we delivered

Office 365

Microsoft Business 365 Voice

Microsoft Teams

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