Maintel has deployed an EMEA-wide cloud telephony system for AVONWorldwide, one of the world’s leading direct sellers. The move to Maintel’s ICON platform forms part of a wider strategy to transform the 134-year old retailer.

AVONWorldwide has been successful for more than a century but is currently facing stiff competition from eRetailers such as Amazon. To help stay ahead, the company wanted to future proof its business, while making it easier for its employees and sales representatives to work with the business, irrespective of their location and language, as well as simplifying the support and burden on their own business to keep the service operational.

A major milestone in this project is the deployment of a cost-effective cloud-based telephony system EMEA-wide, based on subscription licensing, while utilising their existing and legacy investments. ICON makes it easier for staff and salespeople to communicate and collaborate, while ensuring consistent infrastructure is in place across the region.

One significant benefit of the ICON platform is that it seamlessly integrates with multiple voice platforms such as Microsoft Teams – a key factor in AVONWorldwide choosing this solution. Staff can now easily communicate across multiple devices and employees can be fully flexible and mobile. It also helps improve call centre uptime, increasing their ability to capture and deliver upon orders.

In addition, the entire platform is hosted in a private cloud environment, meaning that AVONWorldwide doesn’t have to host it internally or have the burden of managing the infrastructure itself. The company can also take advantage of Maintel’s centralised ICON Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) service for multiple EMEA regions. As part of the implementation of the ICON platform, Maintel offers customers such as AVONWorldwide ongoing day to day support, with a customised managed service.

Rufus Grig, Chief Technology Officer, Maintel said: “Our purpose is to support AVONWorldwide in its journey to become the world’s most admired digital platform for direct selling. The beauty of Maintel’s ICON platform is that it can be scaled right from day one. So, we’re looking forward to helping AVONWorldwide take its business to the next level over the coming months and years. This not only marks an exciting time for Maintel’s ongoing relationship with AVONWorldwide, but we are also pleased to be strengthening our relationship with Avaya to make our ICON platform better than ever.”

Ian Dupuy ,Executive Director of Global Infrastucture and Operations Services (GIOS), AVONWorldwide, said: “This is an important milestone for AVONWorldwide as it enables us to simplify our entire estate and to prioritise cloud adoption as we undertake the digital transformation of our business as a whole. We have been working with Maintel for several years and we’re looking forward to building on this relationship with our strategic partner. Following the successful implementation of the ICON platform across EMEA, we plan to roll out across APAC so that we will have one standardised solution to support multiple regions and will consolidate both cost and technology.”

In the coming months, the ICON platform will be rolled out to 8000+ AVONWorlwide users, including 800 contact centre users across EMEA, before expanding to other markets.

About Maintel 

Maintel is a cloud and managed services company with a focus on communications. Its people are experienced, trusted technology advisors, who improve their clients’ organisations through digital transformation.

Founded in 1991, Maintel has a proven track record of delivering communications solutions and services to both the private and public sector. In that time, the company has gained the expertise to solve the challenges associated with digital initiatives, and its managed services approach ensures clients realise the full value of their technology.

This is achieved by specialising in three key pillars of digital transformation: making organisations more effective, efficient, and collaborative with digital workplace solutions; allowing organisations to acquire, develop, and retain more business by using technology to create more meaningful customer experiences through outstanding service; ensuring organisations’ employees, customers, and partners always have seamless access to their data and applications through reliable, secure connectivity.

Ongoing growth of Maintel’s cloud and managed services offerings continues to allow the company to keep supporting the increasing demands of the market.

Please visit www.maintel.co.uk for more information.