Flexible telephony and PBX services throughout the Nordics with Telavox

Magnus Rodén, Senior IT Manager, Kicks

Kicks

Kicks offer beauty products in makeup, fragrances, and skin and hair care.

Locations

Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

Number of Employees

2 000.

Features used Customer since

2019

About the company

Cosmetics chain Kicks has the ambition to be a leader in the Nordic region in perfume and cosmetics. They offer beauty products in makeup, fragrance, skin and hair care.

The company has 2,000 employees, an extensive online store, and 250 stores in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The company has net sales of SEK 3,351 million (2019).

The challenge

Magnus Rodén, Senior IT Manager at Kicks, had long been tired of the company’s old PBX. It was both expensive and hard to handle. He was looking for a user-friendly communication solution for the entire company – a solution that wasn’t limited by geography.

“We wanted a supplier, a system, and an agreement for all our Nordic countries – and we got that with Telavox“, he says.

The solution

A new PBX in 2 hours instead of 6 days

The first thing Kicks did was to cancel their old PBX solution for the company’s service desk. Magnus then set up the new gear together with Henrik Svedberg, Project Manager at Customer Operations at Telavox.

“Our PBX was ready in two hours! That included all technical setup, creating call strategies, setting up voicemail, and recording all necessary greetings. Two hours!”

Magnus states that handling all parts of the PBX yourself meant considerable savings in both time and money – without waiting times or need for expensive consulting hours.

When Magnus realised the amount of resources which would be freed up with a change of systems, the choice to switch to Telavox was easy.

“For fun, I checked with our previous supplier. They said that the equivalent solution would take about 150 hours to create“, he says.

 

New voice response in 2 minutes instead of 2 weeks

With Telavox, Kicks’ service desk can now handle their PBX themselves, which has meant lower costs, increased efficiency, and flexibility.

“Before, we had to hire our supplier to replace recorded voicemails, for instance. It was expensive, and it took time, often several weeks. Now, our service desk can record their own messages in just a few minutes“, says Magnus.

He highlights several tricky situations when you can’t control your own PBX and voicemails without external help. For example, you may want to record a message to promote a campaign.

“Previously, we had to book a studio. Each time, it costs at least SEK 16,000 per message. But once the studio was available, the campaign was often already over“, says Magnus.

Today, an employee at Kicks records all messages. This person is also involved in the company’s advertising and forms part of the brand.

“The old giants in the industry have simply not kept up. They are limited because they are stuck in cumbersome legacy systems and cannot offer a good customer journey”, says Magnus.

Magnus Rodén, Senior IT Manager, Kicks

The result

Increased efficiency with a solution for the Nordics 

With Telavox, Kicks has gained better control over both functions and costs.

“Both agreements and invoices are transparent and clear. Today, we can predict fixed costs for PBX and telephony down to the last Swedish krona, which facilitates budget work considerably”, says Magnus.

He is also very pleased with the decision to choose a common solution for the whole Nordic region.

“Today, we can make changes to the PBX, move licenses and change the amount of data for employees’ surfing plans completely without help, regardless of which country they are in.”

“Finally, we have a modern and easy-to-use PBX. If we need help, we just call our contact person, Henrik, and he’ll fix it within half an hour.”

A unified platform for the entire Nordic region means that the whole company today works in the same way, in the same interface. It simplifies cooperation and makes it easy to channel conversations between offices in different countries.

“It is incredible to have one single supplier for all the Nordic countries. Everything is connected to the same product. It provides a unified experience for both our customers and us.”