Unity Communications

Please describe your company and your position there.

Work in the Aerospace industry, as a customer business director

For what projects/services did your company hire Unity Communications?

Hired Unity to create a Tier 1 customer commerce site.

What were your goals for this project?

Wanted to purchase, rather than build, an infrastructure to help bring products and services on line and keep customer support at the highest levels.

How did you select this vendor?

RFP

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Unity helped design and build a customer support workflow that included multi channel communication between customers & vendors. They created a global team environment for integration and onboarding, and helped specify KPI to assure ROI.

What was the team composition?

5 customer support agents, and 1 team leader.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The team has proved very capable, in this, our first step in using a 3rd party for an e-commerce site.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

My point of contact worked directly with their point of contact seamlessly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Flexibility, and ability to deal with change. This is an organization with a lot of experience — they had seen the kick-off issues before, and knew how to address them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

All companies have room to improve. Only nit would be that time scheduling issues sometimes came into play.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of an e-commerce merger and acquisition company.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Unity Communications?

When we first started, we reached out to them for help with business process execution to focus primarily on customer care.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their work included responding to customer messages, monitoring seller review comments, and engaging with them to resolve issues. Since that initial concept, we’ve expanded to have the team monitor other components of our brand health.

They capture data through screenshots and other forms so that we can have a data repository we can leverage. We’re also using them for contact data-mining. Essentially, for lead generation for mergers and acquisitions program.

What is the team composition?

We have one dedicated account representative, and will soon have a second. We have a management level contact with support.

How did you come to work with Unity Communications?

They came to us from a referral. We evaluated them against a couple of other service providers. We appreciated their rapid responsive nature. They’re very engaged, follow up diligently, and were quite responsive. We also liked their pricing and partner orientation that they continuously expressed.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $1,500. That doesn’t include time spent training and supporting the relationship, which adds about $500 more.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in April 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The success metrics are currently around task completion, including monitoring customer service response levels, and we maintain that service level. They’ve maintained follow-through on all of the monitoring we’ve asked them to do. For the current measurements, they’re performing as well as they could.

By other measurements, we’re generally pleased with the partnership and the quality of work. We’re looking to expand the relationship and have them help with another level of data collection.

How did Unity Communications perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is great. We have a Slack channel and we’re in constant communication as the business requires it throughout the day. Our dedicated representative also sends a daily summary, with tasks completed and notes, which we find helpful.

I can tell from the way the summary is formatted that they’re using Excel to track the work completed. They’re very proactive and flexible, as we’ve evolved our scope of work to include both task completion and a dedicated account representative. They’re always willing to help us achieve our goals.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The emphasis on communication really stands out to me, as well as the flexibility of accommodating new tasks.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

What's most helpful is having documentation of exactly what you’d like to have done. They were very quick to learn new tasks, and where we did provide documentation the team used it, read it over, and referenced it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was a former business consultant for an IT services and telecom company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Unity Communications?

I relied on Unity Communications for a variety of administrative and processing tasks.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Unity Communications offered a back-office team who provided a wide range of admin and sales support. They put together proposals for my customers, handled data-entry, and reconciled overage as well as incorrectly filed items. They even placed orders in the system and provided me with the information I needed to support my customers.

What is the team composition?

Around three of their team members were involved in the engagement. There was a project manager overseeing the work.

How did you come to work with Unity Communications?

When I was at a previous job, I’d partnered with Unity Communications on different projects. Since they’re a local company, I was able to reach out to them again when I needed support. They’re familiar with our field of work, so they seemed like a natural choice.

What is the status of this engagement?

While we’ve worked together on and off for the last five years, our recent engagement started in January 2018.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

While it’s hard to quantify the quality of work, I’ve been pleased with their services. Their work frees up time for me to be able to focus on my primary operations. They process things accurately and in a timely manner, which is why I continue to rely on them.

How did Unity Communications perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good communicators. They respond right away if I need something. On the flip side, I get status updates as they’re working on projects, and they reach out immediately if there are any hiccups. They’re vocal about deadlines and always manage to meet them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re able to accurately place orders and accurately crunch data into a format that’s useful to me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. I’ve never had any problems.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear in what you’re requesting and make sure they understand the timelines you need them to adhere to. In any case, they’re good about meeting the expectations that are set.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Ran a regional sales team for B2B sales for one of the major US Telecommunications brands.

For what projects/services did your company hire Unity Communications?

Unity Communications was hired to generate leads for businesses in our territory. We had a team of 10 covering the state and responsibilities for the team members covered B2B quota but also supporting our retail stores and account management. Being that growth was what we were measured on, but the other goals were of equal importance to leadership, we needed to be more efficient with our time spent on projects and work streams.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to increase our funnel size and closed business while not over-indexing on the time spent calling on businesses. We anticipated being able to grow our closed business by 2-4 new logos a month above the run rate.

How did you select this vendor?

Patrick was a local business that we had relationships with through other opportunities. The company had a vetting process whereby financials and other points needed proof. Once Unity Communications was an approved vendor, the proof of work was delivered immediately above all other vendors who would promise a lot but depend on the sales team for a lot of extra reporting work. Unity Communications was very clear in understanding the market, the line of business and the buyer audience.

Describe the project in detail.

Unity Communications created their own calling scripts. We provided a list of targets, and they augmented the list with their own contacts and target audience. Daily calls were made between three people calling on our market. The callers would set appointments for our sales team to go in and close the business. They were paid on closed business only. Unity would consult with the clients on implementation and were key in multi-site complex deployments.

What was the team composition?

We had 5 people. Three called on businesses. Two would attend closing appointments to set up implementation. One person would handle implementations to take strain off our resources. The members stayed static and well known so communicaiton was healthy. There were hiccups at some points but it was easy to iron those out with the familiarity of roles and people.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The results for the 18 months we ran in conjunction with Unity were record-breaking for our market. We landed major regional brands due to the involvement of Unity creating conversations our sales teams could run with and the implementation support offered. The end to end sale support model thrived. The sales team was eager to win Unity's favor and support, knowing that they were bringing in half of the leads we were closing (sales team still responsibile to continue their contributions as this was a growth project, not a shift the work project). Our sales doubled. We had a very harmonious relationship between Unity and the direct sales team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had weekly meetings between leadership at my brand and at Unity. We would review the status of leads, funnel stages, and deal with any communication hiccups. They were very organized, thorough and delivered on promises.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The results. Hands down Patrick understands sales and was able to relay that to his team. They met business customers' expectations and created valuable relationships and partnerships with the brands. They would work crazy hours to meet deadlines. But even with all of that, if the sales numbers didn't move it's just a "nice to have". Unity contributed 30-50% of our numbers during the program through the tight partnership, creating clear expectations and a regular rhythm of activity.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I thought long and hard about this one. The two teams were so in synch on goals that the small issues we did have were quickly resolved. I cannot think of anything that I would have done differently.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a senior analyst at a university.

What challenge were you trying to address with Unity Communications?

We needed additional IT resources so that our help desk doesn't get overloaded. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We're constantly upgrading our website and adding new online classes to compete with other universities. Whenever we put on a large catalog of classes online, our help desk and our IT resources get hit with a lot of user requests. Most of those requests are about user experience or compatibility issues. Unity Communications put together a step-by-step plan and then put a ticketing system in place. About two weeks after the onboarding, they were handling 90% of the requests we received from our users.  

What is the team composition? 

They assigned a team to our project.

How did you come to work with Unity Communications?

They have a lot of expertise in the IT industry and help desk issues, so we decided they'd be a great fit. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

We worked with them between January 2017–June 2018.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They exceeded our expectations. They're very knowledgeable and they were always available to address the requests from our users. They're located in the other part of the globe, so it was a bit outside of our comfort zone, but everything worked out very well.

How did Unity Communications perform from a project management standpoint? 

They were very responsive and delivered ahead of deadlines. We mostly used phone, email, and text to stay in touch. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

You can trust that they'll deliver what they said they would. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

If we wanted to speak to their leadership, we needed to schedule the time two days in advance. But they were always willing to accommodate us, so it wasn't a big issue. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Their rates are fairly affordable, so I'd definitely recommend them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

When I worked with Unity Communications, I was the IT operations supervisor at Handling Systems.

What challenge were you trying to address with Unity Communications?

Our company had cell phone bills that were out of control, so we started looking for a vendor to manage our cell phone accounts.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did a great job managing our account and keeping our monthly costs low. They found the best plans for us and came up with quarterly reports to make sure we were at the best price point. We wanted to ensure we responded to all the issues that users were having. Unity Communications was able to take a lot of the low-tier calls for us so that we could concentrate on higher-tier calls.

What is the team composition? 

I mostly worked with Patrick (Founder and CEO, Unity Communications), our account manager, and a couple of their leads. 

How did you come to work with Unity Communications?

I did some research and came across their name, so I called them.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in September 2012, and the project was completed in 2015.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They were able to take care of our needs. They're very attentive and customer-focused. If there was an issue, they responded quickly. I'd definitely recommend them.

How did Unity Communications perform from a project management standpoint? 

They were very professional and willing to understand our business. Also, they're great communicators and let us know about possible delays. We usually used phone calls to stay in touch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're invested in building strong relationships with their clients. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Our management team was impressed with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Former telecom project manager for TelePacific Communications, a telecommunications cxchange carrier

For what projects/services did your company hire Unity Communications?

Facing unavailability in the California labor market, we outsourced to Unity Communications to help coordinate the large and complex projects we had to manage. Unity manged the service delivery of internet, phone, PBX, DSL, fiber, ethernet over copper, and managed security services.

What were your goals for this project?

To have projects completed on time and under budget.

How did you select this vendor?

Unity Communications were highly successful in their projects with one of our largest partners. So, when leadership reached out for reliable vendors, their name was on the top of the list.

Describe the project in detail.

Submitted all aspects of all services contracted, up to the smallest detail, to ensure customer satisfaction was met along with pinpoint accuracy in deliverables. Service Level Agreements were created and set, mostly focused on product delivery, timeline management, troubleshooting where needed, and customer satisfaction.

What was the team composition?

Small team of 3–5 people with one team leader who served as an escalation point and subject management expert. Our main point of contact and overall account manager was in the United States (Patrick Brown). 

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Communication was stellar. They helped set up the project management software (Asana), ticketing desk, milestone acknowledgements, service level agreements (SLAs), and expectations. They were right in line with what we were expecting.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Efficient and easy. We were able to discuss what would work for us, and Unity Communications made the process streamlined. A point of contact was available when we needed it, and they maintained communication to help keep us on top of projects.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Unity Communications made things simple and easy, and it was clear they worked to be as efficient as possible.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We wished we could have ramped up faster on personnel, but we understand that good people are hard to find.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a manager at a telecom management company. We review and optimize other companies’ bills, making sure they’re saving money and aware of different usage trends.

What challenge were you trying to address with Unity Communications?

We initially needed a partner to place orders with our carrier. After hiring Unity Communications, we realized they were a great partner and could provide a call center in the Philippines, so we expanded our partnership.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Unity Communications provides various services, including voicemail restarts, troubleshooting with customers, and placing orders. They speak to our customers every day and help them with anything related to their cellphones. They do both customer service and account management, such as making sure mobile device policies are available.

What is the team composition?

They currently have 12 people on their team. We mainly interact with the owner, call center manager, and main supervisor.

How did you come to work with Unity Communications?

Our owner found them, and their responsibilities have expanded over time.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in May 2018, and the work is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Their team is much easier to work with than their U.S. counterparts, and they’ve grown from one to 12 team members within a year. They add value to our company and have severely reduced the number of mistakes being made by our customer service representatives. They consistently receive positive feedback, and we want to hire more of them.

How did Unity Communications perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re responsive and follow through with every task. I assign cases in Salesforce according to our service-level agreement, and Unity Communications knows the workflow perfectly. We have over 545 customers, and their team has read every single company profile.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If you ask their owner to do something, he’ll find a way to manage it. In two years, I’ve only had to escalate problems twice, which is amazing. They value their jobs and care about the work, going above and beyond for every customer. They’re loyal, humble, helpful, and save us both time and money. Because of them, my job is much easier.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any ways they could improve—they’ve been an invaluable asset.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Trust them because they're experts.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director for a national cell phone dealer.

What challenge were you trying to address with Unity Communications?

We wanted to generate more sales outside of our physical store locations.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

Unity Communications prospects new customers on our behalf and routes sales back through our organization.

What is the team composition?      

I worked with Patrick (CEO, Unity Communications), and Angela (Executive Sales Admin & Manager, Unity Communications).

How did you come to work with Unity Communications?

Patrick developed a business relationship with a member of our executive staff and we’ve used his services ever since.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2018 and our engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Unity Communications processes valuable deals and their efforts produce high volume results. They facilitate prospecting that we couldn't have generated ourselves. I consider that a win.

How did Unity Communications perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is very responsive and they always get back to us within 24 hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re consistent with their data, the volume of their orders, and their communication. They’re highly efficient with the system they’ve created with us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any constructive feedback at this time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would urge customers to stay in constant communication to ensure everyone is on the same page. Having a daily point of contact is crucial.

Please describe your company and your position there.

am the Director of Sales and oversee the sales team for a full-service Telcom consulting firm. We work with all major providers to offer our clients several options for any and all Telcom related projects. I

For what projects/services did your company hire Unity Communications?

We've brought unity in for consulting work as well as overflow on order processing.

What were your goals for this project?

We had several goals, mainly around delivering services to clients on time and correctly.

How did you select Unity Communications?

We interviewed several firms and found their attention to detail and overall knowledge to be the best for our project.

Describe the project in detail.

We brought in Unity to oversee a Telcom audit that involved correctly pricing current services, and negotiating better prices for new service.

What was the team composition?

N/a

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We completed the project faster than expected and have engaged Unity for other ongoing projects.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Exceptional

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The depth of knowledge they brought to our team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not at this time.