Kiwi businesses taking the lead in fibre adoption

New Zealand will be one of the top five OECD nations for fibre availability by 2022, when 87 percent of the population will be able to access fibre broadband technology. Kiwi businesses are the ones taking the lead in fibre adoption, but for reasons beyond faster broadband.

"The speed and reliability benefits of fibre have long since been established; now we're starting to see businesses really take advantage of using a 'future-ready' internet connection, one which supports their growing business needs and requirements, such as using their fibre connection to facilitate cloud business services," says Seeby Woodhouse, CEO for NZ owned internet service provider, Voyager.

Amare Safety, a provider of safety and protective clothing throughout New Zealand and Australia, is in the process of rolling out fibre across all of their six NZ retail stores.

"We host our phone and our business software in the cloud, so a dependable internet connection is crucial to supporting these business functions. We've expanded from one to six stores over the past six years, and rolling out fibre with each new location is now standard practice," says Amare Safety general manager John White.

"Everything in business is now instantaneous, and fibre enables us to provide an instant service to our customers and meet their expectations, whether that's processing online orders or answering customer calls.

White says there have been a number of incentives for the business moving to a cloud PBX solution.

"Initially it was the cost. The capex involved in setting up a phone system on copper was enormous," says White.

"The continued advantage for us is efficiency, our Information Systems Managers can focus on business projects which drive revenue, and not spend their time maintaining an archaic phone system. We have six retail sites and a warehouse, but with a cloud PBX, it feels like just having one site.

Amare Safety chose to partner with Voyager for their fibre and voice services.

"We've got a long-standing relationship with Voyager, they transitioned us from copper to fibre at our first site six years ago, and now they're always involved with each new store roll out," White says.

"Voyager has got be one of our best suppliers, mainly because I never have to contact them about BAU, everything just works!

AbleOwl is another Kiwi company making the most of their fibre connection.

"A lot of our meetings with potential customers take place over video conference, so a fast and reliable internet connection is vital," says AbleOwl consultant Tim Von Ahsen.

"On fibre we never have any embarrassing dropouts or disconnections. When our PBX hardware stopped working, we utilised our fibre connection to help move our phone service into the cloud. It made sense from a cost perspective, eliminating the need for hardware updates and maintenance, but also from an efficiency perspective.

With a requirement to travel across New Zealand and Australia, it is vital for AbleOwl employees to be able to work remotely.

"A cloud PBX system has given us the flexibility to continue working, whether at home, on the road, in the office or on a training course," says Von Ahsen.

"We don't have to worry about always having someone in the office to answer the phone, and with international customers, we don't need to worry about calls that come through in the middle of the night, it really is seamless working.

AbleOwl also chose to partner with Voyager for their broadband and voice services.

"Working with one provider for our phone and internet just makes life easier, and being able to immediately contact someone who can actually help is a huge benefit to working with a local NZ provider like Voyager," Von Ahsen says.

Click here to find out more about business fibre broadband. To find out how much you could save with a cloud PBX solution click here.