Advanced technology infrastructure to support an ever-changing, growing workforce.
Club Assist specialises in the sourcing, storage, distribution and installation of batteries in automotive, recreation, commercial and industrial applications. With a range of offices and mobile contractors, Club Assist partners with automotive clubs to provide battery and roadside services to their members’ and serves its customers with a range of battery solutions. So, business continuity and smooth operating systems that connect their network of suppliers, partners, customers, employees and contractors is essential.
Kunal Raiker, IT Operations and Security Manager at Club Assist, knew that the organisation’s current systems were no longer agile or robust enough to cater to a mobile and changing environment. Circumstances like office relocations and the pandemic forcing everyone to work from home meant it was time to update the current technology infrastructure to cope with changes, improve business continuity and support more seamless scalability.
That’s why for the past few years, Rubicon 8 has been Club Assist’s trusted tech partner. Over time, the relationship has progressed from simple connectivity solutions through to decentralising company-wide phone systems, moving to the cloud, and assisting with implementing a remote working infrastructure.
A big team means big-picture goals.
With a team of over 380 employees and a strong workforce of around 150 contractors, Club Assist has a large national supply chain and global procurement capability. Just as Club Assist works closely with leading manufacturers to deliver world-class products and services, they require the same level of expertise in the technology space to ensure that their internal operations are refined to support this delivery.
So after experiencing outages in their server room that interrupted on-premise telephone systems, servers and network switches – not to mention the pandemic forcing the company into remote working arrangements – Kunal reached out to Rubicon 8 for advice about moving Club Assist’s telephony to the cloud. A key priority was making sure that Club Assist could connect their team from anywhere, creating more flexibility in the business, as well as providing a solution that integrated seamlessly with their current cloud solutions.
“We have a very strong relationship with Telstra and the team at Rubicon 8. So when we knew we wanted to integrate telephony into Microsoft Teams, we went straight to the team for their advice on how we could make the transition.”
Kunal Raiker, IT Operations and Security Manager, Club Assist
After discussing Club Assist’s priorities and business goals, Justin McRae, ICT Solutions Specialist at Rubicon 8, could see that Club Assist was already using certain solutions in the Microsoft stack – like the Azure Active Directory, Office 365 and Microsoft Teams. Justin agreed with Kunal that cloud calling was the missing link and suggested moving away from their current on-premise PABX phone system and implementing Telstra Calling for Office 365 to get the most out of their existing Microsoft Teams solution.
“Leveraging Club Assist’s investment in Microsoft and adding on to the existing tech stack meant the team was already familiar with a lot of the functionality, helping save costs in training and productivity.”
Justin McRae, ICT Solutions Specialist, Rubicon 8
Justin and the team provided a full proposal and demo of the solution. Club Assist was happy with the solution put forward, which included moving away from the PABX phone system and configuring their Microsoft tenancy – setting up all users and call flows, conducting testing and end-user training.
Keeping costs down and connecting the team during a global pandemic.
In early 2020, Club Assist – like many other businesses across the globe – grappled with the challenges of remote working due to the pandemic. The Rubicon 8 team understood the urgency and stressful nature of the situation that Club Assist found themselves in and recommended a solution that not only solved their flexibility challenges, but also provided maximum efficiency at an affordable cost.
Benson, Service Delivery Specialist at Rubicon 8 worked closely with Club Assist to manage the timelines and deliver the project in just 8 weeks. Rubicon 8 was also able to find the right financial construct to meet Club Assist’s needs, which meant that there wasn’t a big upfront investment.
The new solution meant flexibility for employees to work from anywhere as long as they had an internet connection, and all the challenges they had previously faced like relocating sites, investing in physical on-premises hardware and business continuity were all addressed with one straightforward solution.
After seeing great results, Club Assist also implemented the Telstra Calling for Office 365 functionality into their Call Centre and were able to decommission the quite pricy solution that they currently had in place.
“In addition to the obvious financial savings because we no longer need to use the PABX phone system across the offices, the results have been fantastic. We had a few training sessions post implementation, but – touch wood – we’ve never had any issues internally from my team or someone in the business. So far, it’s been great!”
Kunal Raiker, IT Operations and Security Manager, Club Assist
“Whatever the solution, we partner with the customer and make sure that we deliver it from the start to the finish and make it a good experience. Our long-term clients and advocates trust us to deliver on the project from end to end, and we always keep the communication channels open long after the job’s been done.”
John Bletsas, Head of Service, Rubicon 8
Looking to the future
Club Assist team members know that they have a trusted technology partner in Rubicon 8. Additionally, they have confidence in Benson and Justin, and the entire Project Management team, that they’ll listen to their needs and recommend a solution that’s right for their business. Club Assist know that they’ll not only receive a professionally delivered project, but also complete transparency throughout the whole process, even after the solution has been implemented.
“Rubicon 8 was one of the best project management teams I’ve worked with at Club Assist. It was a very well-run project, and very well executed. The team was punctual in our weekly catchups, and the updates and reporting were detailed and thorough. Any change requests were always quickly accommodated. I was really impressed by the attention we got on this project.”
Kunal Raiker, IT Operations and Security Manager, Club Assist
Ready to cross the Rubicon?
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