Project Overview

When Kindergarten Taranaki wanted to modernise its telecommunications, it needed a provider that understood both technology and people.

Taranaki’s Primo stepped up to deliver  a full upgrade – linking the Kindergarten Taranaki head office in New Plymouth with the 24 kindergartens around the region with fibre, Business VoIP (voice over internet protocol to replace traditional landline systems), and new mobile plans.

“Everything worked really smoothly, says Kindergarten Taranaki CE Dawn Osman. “We’re saving about $11,000 a year off our telecom package.

“For us that’s really important because 97 per cent of our funding comes from the Ministry of Education and we need to be mindful of how we spend that. So our savings in that area means we can reinvest in our kindergartens.”

And getting communications right is vital for kindergarten operations, Dawn says.

“Each of our kindergartens has their mobiles, their landline and their internet.

“We’ve got five to 10 staff at each kindergarten … and they all use laptops, they all have phones that they use for recording children’s learning as well as their communication in terms of contacting us, contacting families, texting.

“Our teachers are also using mobile devices now to record children’s learning. So the Primo service actually gives them a much faster internet speed to download to their laptop from their phone.”

The Challenge

Before moving to Primo, Kindergarten Taranaki was juggling multiple providers and systems that had been in place for years.

Mark Jackson, Primo’s business development expert, says things needed a major tidy-up.

“Billing was a mess – their invoices could be over 30 pages,” he says.

“The business that supported their telephony hadn’t sharpened its pencil in years and wasn’t obligated to do so. So for them it was a good opportunity to basically compare apples with apples. And we found a lot of efficiencies … about 20 per cent on their annual telco bill.”

The Solution

Facilities and Services Team Leader Suzette Cole, who oversaw much of the technical rollout, says the whole Primo switchover “was a piece of cake”.

She says Primo didn’t just install new systems; it helped Kindergarten Taranaki understand their network and business concierge Callum Glennie mapped their network so they knew exactly where every piece of equipment was and who had ownership of it.

“Now we’ve got good documentation of our network and where it’s all sitting. So if anything falls over, we know it’s in this cupboard or that device is over here or whatever, or we’ve got this many devices.”

The Results

The change has transformed the way the organisation operates. Kindergarten Taranaki’s 25 locations — from Pātea in the south to Kaitake and Waitara — now share a unified network, one set of logins, one bill, and one locally-based support team.

Mark Jackson says the efficiency gains are clear with savings around 20 percent on their annual telco bill. But more importantly, there’s now a network and a communications system that’s built for today that’ll last till tomorrow.

An easy way to make the change

Mark Jackson says Primo makes things easy.

“With customers there’s a lot of uncertainty about what would the journey look like. In their minds it’s a complex process but it’s actually a really simple process.”

Suzette Cole backs that up 100 per cent.

“It was nice to talk to someone that actually understands where we’re at.

“We’re a not-for-profit organisation, so they understood that we couldn’t have all the bells and whistles. Callum [Glennie] provided a report after each installation and that was really useful because he would say, “I’d recommend this, but this is a nice-to-have, so you don’t need it.”

“So going forward, we can actually now plan our network and feel comfortable that actually we’re in a good place. They’ve been great.”

Ready to make your life simpler?

If your organisation manages multiple sites or mobile users, Primo can save you time, money and stress.

Mark Jackson says it never hurts to see what Primo can do for you. Even if it is just a report card on the current way you do things.

“We have a process called a TVA, a telecommunications value assessment. You bring in your bill, we’ll have a look at your current spend, we’ll have a look at your network infrastructure, we’ll get an understanding of where you are today and where you want to be.

“Then we’ll put that across our offering and we’ll see if we can find efficiencies and cost savings. And nine times out of 10, we do.”