TSG Building Services Plc is a multi-disciplined building services and construction company. A family-run business, the organisation hires over 200 staff to support its operations, which include servicing and maintenance, mechanical & renewables, commercial & electrical, property refurbishment, and new build construction.
Thanks to Apogee’s managed solutions, TSG has transformed its telephony to better support its staff and customers, overhauled its IT infrastructure, and enhanced its ESG credentials by joining the Affinity+ Partner Programme.
With rapid growth and the opening of new offices in Potters Bar and Cambridge, TSG needed to make progress in its digital transformation journey. However, the business was unable to pursue its goals due to existing legacy technology.
Primarily, the organisation heavily relied on an expensive PTSN-based on-premises system for its telephony, an outdated technology that is expected to be phased out over the next few years. This led to a range of inefficiencies. For example, contact centre staff were often wasting precious time by manually searching for phone numbers.
TSG also recognised the need to streamline its wider infrastructure. A myriad of cables and switches located around the office environment proved problematic in terms of health and safety, with connections across different server cabinets. Cables even needed to be unplugged to route calls to different parts of the building. In terms of its printing, the organisation needed to save money on costs and ensure document security as a data processor for local authorities.
“We knew that we needed to tap into a holistic IT service management offering from an end-to-end provider to meet all of our requirements. Because we share data with the public sector, it was important that both our digital transformation goals and data processing needs were accounted for. We also deal with over 100,000 customers, many being social housing residents. Our telecommunications therefore need to be reliable so people can contact us when they need to,” says Marc Terenzio, Head of IT, TSG.
TSG engaged with Apogee to solve its telephony, infrastructure and printing pain points. After a full audit to decipher what the business needed to move forward with its expansion strategy, Apogee incorporated a cloud-based telephony system with a disaster recovery option to replace TSG’s outdated on-premise deployment.
The softphone and mobile app functionality for call centre staff was particularly attractive to TSG for its ability to facilitate seamless remote working, handle call recording for compliance and training purposes, and enable voicemail transcription to text for easier access. It provides each user with their own dedicated line, allowing customers and staff in other offices to easily contact a specific person via extension numbers.
“After implementing the new telephony system, we wanted to reassure TSG that we would remain by their side. TSG appreciate that we bring a personal touch to supporting them with their solutions and they know that we’re at the end of the phone if they ever require support or need a query answered,” says Jason Barnard, Sales Specialist Telecoms and Cloud Solutions, Apogee.
At the heart of the new system is a digital platform that can be controlled by TSG, allowing customisation of its features to suit the company’s image. Terenzio is able to achieve full transparency across the whole network from his desktop. Real-time analytics provide granular data, such as how many calls a department is receiving and making or which users are logged in to the system at any one time, providing clarity as to whether there are any issues with handsets that need to be rectified.
“Marc essentially acts as a sounding board by giving us constructive feedback on how the digital platform is working for him, which we’re then able to feed back to the developer and make improvements to benefit TSG’s staff and future customers. TSG are reassured that we don’t just provide static products, and we’re always evolving to meet new technological needs. It’s very much a two-way partnership that has benefitted us as much as TSG,” says Paul Birch, Strategic Account Director, Apogee.
Alongside the implementation of the telephony system, TSG has also benefitted from Apogee’s Managed Print Services solution. Since deployment, the business has saved 12% in running costs, with controlled access bringing much-needed security to sensitive documents and ensuring compliance with GDPR. This is in parallel with new underlying servers, networking cables, POE switches and network devices to simplify its IT infrastructure. This supports the rollout of new devices to staff, including laptops and mobile phones.
With the project an ongoing success, Apogee is now the preferred sole supplier for everything technology-related in TSG’s offices, which includes laptops, PCs, phones, mobile phones, printing, software, and cyber security.
“From a benefits perspective, it’s been Apogee’s commitment to IT service management that has really made the difference. There has to be that sufficient level of customer service to ensure we get the best from our technology implementations. The communication promises made prior to the signing of the contract have been adhered to, and that really outweighs any financial gain we’ve made from the project,” says Terenzio.
TSG has now joined Apogee’s Affinity+ Partner Programme. As a part of the scheme, the organisation is able to maximise profits and achieve additional revenue by referring existing clients to Apogee. Another advantage is that the company is able to upcycle its old devices with Apogee, where functional but no longer needed technology is sent to a recycling centre. These devices are refurbished and either sold or donated to schools that lack the budget to buy new digital equipment. This is highly beneficial to TSG’s environmental, social, and governance credentials (ESG) and meets its ISO14001 requirements.
TSG is currently engaged with Apogee to discuss several new solutions. Apogee will cover first, second and third line IT support over the coming months, and is also working with TSG on the implementation of Ancora invoicing, archiving and retrieval software, helping to eliminate any costs or errors in invoice processing.
Apogee is working with the business to incorporate endpoint security on all devices deployed to staff to ensure they remain protected from cyber threats when using them remotely, such as on home networks.
Looking ahead, TSG is now exploring the possibility of outsourcing its domain management to Apogee, with the provider taking responsibility for keeping TSG’s portfolio of web domains active, registered, stable and secure. This will add to the holistic and end-to-end service that Apogee already provides to the business.
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