Zoom Phone Case Study

How The Planet Group Reduced Cost by 50% by implementing Zoom Phone.

How The Planet Group Reduced Telephony Cost by 50% with ZOOM Phone. www.cloudtrustedadvisor.com

Customer: Bob Scalise Company: The Planet Group Industry: Staffing & Recruiting Buyer Persona: CIO, VP of Technology, IT Director, IT Manager Video: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/iMVpJu7iRgXzBnDNN8KWhb? Author: Tim Conti Publish Date: January 16th, 2023 Introduction We were introduced to the Planet Group through an executive who sits on the Company’s Board. This led to an introduction to Bob Scalise, VP of Technology for the Planet Group. The Director of Operations and the CEO’s executive assistant were also part of the steering committee to find a new unified communications-as-a-service solution. With my 16 years of direct industry experience, proven framework, and a 10-step process for evaluating, implementing, and adopting disruptive technologies, the Planet team felt like my team was the right fit with our unbiased approach to vendor selection. Bob and his team cited two main success factors in working with us. The first was time savings. With our proprietary decision-making tools, we could reduce the number of vendor choices from over thirty to a manageable three, in just 60 seconds. The second was cost savings. We were able to save The Planet Group $320k by moving to Zoom Phone from Fuze. www.cloudtrustedadvisor.com

The Current UCaaS landscape is confusing with many Players The Story of The Planet Group The Planet Group is a diversified professional services organization focused on providing high-value outsourced human capital solutions and niche consulting services to Fortune 500 and other leading clients in the fastest-growing and most in-demand sectors. The Planet Group consists of staffing and consulting entities that have been purposefully built to address the professional services needs of leading companies in the technology, energy & engineering, healthcare, accounting & finance, HR, administrative, and digital marketing industries. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Planet has been growing via strategic acquisitions for years. Because they are a recruiting firm, Planet has a very strong reliance on technology, specifically voice communications. But as the market evolved there was a need to incorporate other communication channels to make their recruiters more efficient, including CRM integration (Bullhorn), Chat, Email, Analytics, and Mobility Applications required to stay current. The Planet Group is privately held so its revenue figures are confidential. But 3rd party estimates have them between $500M-$1B. “It has been 7 years since we last addressed the phone system.” We didn’t have the time or expertise to move forward with the project. www.cloudtrustedadvisor.com

The Planet team didn’t have the time or resources, to effectively research the market and the cloud telephony providers. The upcoming contract renewal with their current vendor was looming. But they didn’t want to move too fast and risk making the wrong decision which could lead to downtime and frustration. There was also an opportunity to gain efficiencies by leveraging technology by integrating phone, video, messaging, and chat via one Provider. Why The Planet Group Chose Cloud Trusted Advisor The Planet Team was introduced to me by the president of one of Planet’s divisions. The recommendation was based on my industry experience and also the fact that the president was a client of mine 15 years ago! Planet also considered working with the providers directly but felt they were too biased and only had their interest in mind, and not the Planet Group. Cloud Trusted Advisor was ultimately chosen because of our unbiased approach to vendor selection, years of experience, and our advanced platform for IT Decision-Making.

What your team did in 60 seconds took our team three months of research and hard work. The first step in the process was a custom Zoom video I put together for the client. We input their requirements into our propriety software, and we immediately reduce the number of potential vendors from forty down to five. The planet was impressed with how quickly we downsized the entire UCaaS market for them so we could focus on a manageable few, that we knew were a good fit prior to engaging them. Case Study- The Planet Group- How We short-listed the top five UCaaS vendors in 60 seconds After the vendor selection was addressed we immediately implemented our proven 10-step process and framework for decision-making for unified communications. Our 10-step process has been perfected over hundreds of cloud implementations. www.cloudtrustedadvisor.com

The Results- Lower Cost and Increased Productivity We were able to reduce Planet’s monthly spend for cloud telephony by 50%, and save them $320k over the contract term (3 years). We also increased productivity by 20% by implementing tools such as chat, CRM integration, and analytics. 50% We are a staffing firm that is growing both organically reduction in monthly spend and via acquisitions. With 2-3 acquisitions per year, our IT department, which we run lean, does not have time to take on large projects, such as evaluating VOIP $320k providers. We relied on Tim Conti and his industry expertise to evaluate the major players and help saved over the contract term develop a shortlist of vendors for us to focus on, based on our requirements. Tim guided us through the vendor review process and managed the project until 20% the end when we signed with our vendor of choice. We ended up saving over $10K per month with this project. We could not have succeeded without Tim's assistance." increase in productivity -Bob Scalise Questions? Please visit us at www.cloudtrustedadvisor.com for no obligation consultation, and custom research reports. Tim Conti Founder, Cloud Trusted Advisor 312.925.7731 [email protected]