Medical Software Company Expands with Switchvox
The Customer
FormFast is the leading developer of software for automating medical documentation and streamlining workflow for hospitals and medical clinics. They also provide consultation services to help users implement and maximize their software, including technical assistance, form design, conversion, and training.
Business Challenges
According to Matt Rygelski of PhoneWire in Fairview Heights, Illinois, FormFast is a highly technical company with the resources and skills to implement a customized solutions with the Asterisk open source toolkit. At first glance, it made sense to replace their 15 year old digital Nortel system with a custom Asterisk solution. Ultimately, FormFast decided not to reinvent the wheel. While Asterisk would have given them the features and capabilities they needed, the process would be too time consuming. “The truth is, we are heavily a tech company, and I was familiar with Asterisk. But I am not a telephone guy,” says Ratliff. Once FormFast decided against building their own custom solution, they began looking into proprietary systems. “We had four companies come in and do presentations or bring in demos,” says Ratliff. “We started working with the Switchvox web interface and saw our ability to customize things, to program the auto attendant, IVR and Caller ID, reviewed all the mapping functions, and realized the option of adding our own applet. Switchvox nailed the decision for us.”
Solutions from Sangoma
“Switchvox was built for a company just like ours — one that wants all the features and functionality of an Asterisk-driven system but is preconfigured and packaged at a bundled price, making it significantly more affordable than any of the big box brands,” says Ratliff. Cost and expandability were selling points of the Switchvox system. “We didn’t have a dollar figure for a budget, but Switchvox definitely saved us money,” he says. “The other systems were triple the cost of Switchvox for the same features, and we really like the ability to expand. We were tapped out with the existing setup, but we had 45 expansion slots at the top end with the Switchvox. At the time of the switchover, we purchased 100 licenses. Since implementation, we have added 25 more, and there have been no problems with Switchvox keeping up with the growth.” Since then, FormFast has doubled from 75 to 150 USB wireless headsets. In addition to the main Switchvox server, FormFast was also able to buy and preconfigure a cold spare for emergency backup and redundancy. “If we were to lose our entire phone system, I could have us back up and running within thirty minutes,” Ratliff says.
The Results
FormFast especially enjoys the ease of setting up softphones remotely, which is significantly easier than troubleshooting MCK adapters. “We do not have to go into any of our employees’ homes at all. Instead, we simply log into the Switchvox web-interface and from there we can set up the user, set up voicemail to email, build our own rules, etc.” It was also important for FormFast to be able to integrate with Salesforce, their primary CRM software. “FormFast employees were not anticipating the extent of the detailed information from Salesforce that could be accessed through the Switchvox system, which is a huge help to the representative while on the phone with a customer,” says PhoneWire’s Rygelski. “It was like night and day for them to be able to read past notes and make notations on customer records. In the past, everything was manual, done by hand, which included a lot of human error. Now all the records are right there in front of the representative, and the caller has no idea the calls are not coming from an office or a call center.” With the power of Switchvox, this medical software company now has a call center call queue for technical support and complete administrative call control of a dispersed team of employees.