Case Study: Pine Tree Commercial Realty

Pine Tree Commercial Realty’s headquarters facility was limited by a legacy phone system that couldn’t expand, couldn’t support remote personnel, and was costly to maintain.

Company Background
Pine Tree Commercial Realty, founded in the late 80's are experts in Retail Strip Mall Development and portfolio management of retail properties for institutional investors. They have operations in three core areas: retail property development, property management and general contracting. Throughout the company's history, it has embarked upon nearly 50 state developments and acquisitions. These properties span the US, but are predominately concentrated in emerging areas in the Midwestern states. Pine Tree leverages its relationships with large retailers like Toys R Us, Target, Wal-Mart, and many other successful retail chains to populate its developments. Pine Tree houses its base operations of approximately 15 people in a northern Chicago suburb, but it also supports a half dozen personnel who operate in the field or at remote locations.

Challenges Faced and Impact on Business
Pine Tree Commercial Realty's headquarters facility was limited by a legacy phone system that could not expand, could not support remote personnel, and was costly to maintain. Pine Tree had over a dozen different vendors and phone bills servicing the various office locations of which the bulk of the charges were related to interoffice communications. Pine Tree personnel were prone to have three numbers listed on their business cards (main office, field office, and cell) causing frustration for investors and vendors when attempting to contact them, and frustration for Pine Tree personnel in having to check messages in three different places. In general, Pine Tree's business processes were being hindered by the lack of a uniform and centralized telephone solution and they had no on-staff personnel with the knowledge of time to advance better methods.

Solution Implemented
In the spring of 2003 Pine Tree Commercial Realty completed the conversion from its legacy Nortel Hybrid telephone switch to the Managed Voice Over IP solution. Specifically, new state-of-the-art IP phones were deployed. The 12 local phone lines servicing the headquarter's facility were eliminated as the voice optimized Internet access line became the transport for telephone calls as well as standard Internet traffic. Remote offices were also equipped with broadband lines which allowed for the traditional local phone service lines to be disconnected. All Pine Tree personnel were issued a personalized and unique 10-digit number which could be directed by users to ring at cell phones, remote offices, or to PC-based phones as desired. All locations were unified with a  common set of communication tools.

Results Achieved 
 - Reduced monthly spend as lines were consolidated and made more efficient and calls between locations became free
- Reduced vendors simplifying accounting and relationship management from nearly a dozen providers to a single firm
- Created the centralized and uniform platform that was desired for all Pine Tree locations and personnel.
- The managed platform also supports the growing and the expanding nature of the organization as new properties can easily be added and made homogenous with the rest of the locations.
- Personalized numbers coupled with a Find Me/Follow Me feature gave callers one number to dial and users one voicemail to check.

New features like off system transfers, 4-digit dialing, and four party conference calls enabled Pine Tree to more easily communicate with each other and outside parties.