A 250-employee European manufacturer and distributor of bathroom fixtures uses KPN’s FlexiBel Managed IP PBX, helping it improve the sales and support experiences of its clients, while reducing IT administrative costs.

1. www.yankeegroup.com
Sphinx Increases Sales Efficiency and
Customer Satisfaction with KPN’s
FlexiBel Managed IP PBX Powered by
Alcatel-Lucent
Caroline Ashley, Enterprise Research Senior Analyst | September 2007
A 250-employee European manufacturer and distributor uses KPN’s FlexiBel Managed IP PBX to improve the
responsiveness of customer-facing teams, while reducing IT administrative costs.
The FlexiBel Managed IP PBX improves the sales and support experience for Sphinx’s new and existing customers.
SMBs with legacy PBXs that are considering migrating to a new communication system
Case Study:
The Bottom Line:
Who Should Read:
Sphinx Uses IT to Raise the Responsiveness of Sales and Customer Support Teams
As a subsidiary of the world’s third-largest supplier of bathroom
fixtures (i.e., sinks, bathtubs, toilets and related fixtures and
accessories), Sphinx’s customer-facing teams are crucial to its
ongoing business.
Sphinx is the Benelux subsidiary of Sanitec Oy (see Exhibit 1). It
has 250 employees in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
It sells through three distribution channels: wholesale, installers
and direct to end users.
On joining Sphinx, Mildo van Dongen, the customer relations
manager, made improving sales and support team effectiveness one
of his key goals. At the time, Sphinx was using an outdated legacy
PBX, and calls were being routed via a reception desk staffed by
three full-time employees. The impact on customer service was
clear. In customer surveys, Sphinx rated poorly for key performance
indicators such as “mean time to respond” and “mean time for a
customer to contact the correct internal department/person.”
Exhibit 1
Company Information
Source: Yankee Group, 2007
Company Name
Corporate
Headquarters
Industry Type
2007 Employees
Sphinx (Benelux subsidiary of Sanitec Oy)
Maastricht, Netherlands
Designs, manufactures and markets bathroom
ceramics, and bath and shower products
250
This custom publication has been sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent.
© Copyright 1997-2007. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
In conjunction with the IT team, van Dongen’s objectives from a
new PBX were:
• Reduce the time a call to the company took to get routed to the
correct individual or team. Historically, all calls were routed
through one central number via a three-person manned
receptionist desk.
• Provide access to management information related to sales and
support team metrics such as number of customer calls per day
and average length of calls. This would enable benchmarking
and performance targets for staff to be set and monitored.
• Improve customer satisfaction, which is measured by a survey
on an annual basis.
Although the demands of the business focused on improving
Sphinx’s customer-facing sales and support activities, it was critical
for the IT team that any new solution would limit the amount of
time spent internally on ongoing maintenance and support.
Exhibit 2
KPN’s Value Proposition to Sphinx
Source: Yankee Group, 2007
End-User Value
Proposition Highlights of the KPN Solution
More efficient end-customer
contact
Management
information
reporting capabilities
Out-tasked
maintenance
Greater effectiveness of end-customer
relationship management through tailored
customer contact routing strategies
Providing SMBs with extensive reporting
capabilities on customer contact and inter-company
communications
Reduce SMB IT operation and maintenance
resources by out-tasking all IP PBX system
upgrades, troubleshooting and problem
resolution, 24/7
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All rights reserved. All opinions and estimates herein constitute our judgment as of this date and are subject to change without notice.

2. The Solution
In researching potential suppliers, Mr. van Dongen led the
selection process—from identifying the priority criteria, issuing
an RFP and the final selection of KPN and its FlexiBel Managed
IP PBX (see Exhibit 2 on previous page). The IT and finance
department both supported him.
Two of the priority criteria for Sphinx were the ability of the PBX
to have call-queuing capabilities and for the queuing order to be
changed according to the importance or urgency of customers and
their issues. Mr. van Dongen’s research included speaking with
reference customers from different vendors and service providers.
Critical Success Factors
Critical success factors for Sphinx in the successful
implementation of the FlexiBel Managed IP PBX were:
• Fully operational system from day-one implementation:
It was critical for Sphinx for all features to be fully functional
from day-one installation, rather than a staged rollout of
functionality and features.
September 2007
• User training: Immediately following installation, all users
were provided with comprehensive training on the use of the
new system. Although with hindsight, Mr. van Dongen advises
other businesses to train before installation to ensure a
seamless transition for the customer base.
Benefits
With the successful implementation of the FlexiBel Managed IP
PBX service, Sphinx achieved its aim to increase the efficiency
of the sales and support organizations, with the following results
(see Exhibit 3 and Exhibit 4):
• Cost savings through administrative staff reduction:
The number of receptionists was reduced from three to one
because calls were being routed automatically, instead of
manually. Based on the local labor market, this provided an
estimated cost savings of €40,000 to €60,000 per year.
• Greater efficiency of sales and customer support resources:
To improve customer satisfaction, Sphinx wished to improve
efficiencies across its sales and support organization. With
performance metrics transparency, Sphinx was able to identify
staff with low customer focus. Also, with more efficient call
routing, it was further able to reduce inefficiencies in
management of customer calls. Together, these two factors
enabled it to reduce headcount by 20% while still working
toward its customer service targets.
• IT resources freed up: Time saved on IT administration as
upgrades, troubleshooting and problem resolution is managed
by KPN on a 24x7 basis. For a typical midsize company, this
can represent an 8% to 15% reduction in the total time spent
managing a PBX, allowing IT staff to be redeployed to address
more urgent IT business issues.
Exhibit 3
Sphinx’s Realized Benefits of Using KPN’s FlexiBel Managed IP
PBX Service
Source: Yankee Group, 2007
Soft Benefits
Hard Benefits
Reduction in
receptionists from
three to one because
calls are being routed
with the Automatic Call
Distributor (ACD), instead
of manual routing. An
estimated annual cost savings
of up to 60,000
Availability of sales/support
staff performance
benchmarks, from usage
performance reports
Key
Benefits
Increased customer
satisfaction as sales and
support responsiveness
increased
More efficient use
of customer-facing
resources, leading
to a 20% reduction
in required sales
and support teams
An estimated
8% to 15% time
savings in
administering a
PBX communication
system
Exhibit 4
Challenge, Solution and Value
Source: Yankee Group, 2007
Challenge Solution Value
Increase efficiency of
sales teams and
improve customer
satisfaction by
improved routing of
customer calls while
relieving the internal IT
team of administration
and maintenance
KPN's FlexiBel
Managed IP PBX
service provides
ACD capabilities
with associated
management
reports to improve
sales/support team
performance, with
no additional IT
resources needs
Sphinx has increased
customer satisfaction
and reduced costs by
more efficient routing
of customer calls
2 © Copyright 1997-2007. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. September 2007
• Improved management information: The availability of
sales and support staff performance metrics gives management
better benchmarks for objective setting and measurement.
• Stronger customer relationships: Customer satisfaction
increased as sales and support responsiveness increased thanks
to a more effective customer contact experience:
— Experience before: Customer calls, receptionist answers,
transfer to sales rep, no answer, back to reception, transfer
to another sales rep, inadvertent hang up, customer may
call back, etc.
— Experienc after: Customer calls sales rep, leaves
voicemail, call quickly returned.
Recommendations for SMBs
• Link business objectives with IP PBX investment. Consider
what your business objectives are and then integrate these
business objectives in defining the requirements for any new
technology investment. Don’t limit the decision-making
process to the IT team; also consider the company’s business
unit priorities.
• Train the whole staff on the new system before going live.
This will enable a smooth transition for staff, which will
consequently provide a better experience for customers.
• Pilot the new system before going live. Instead of being
pressured to transition transparently between the legacy and
new system, a pilot will enable a full live test of all features
and functionality.
© Copyright 1997-2007. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. 3

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