INDUSTRY WATCH

With 4,000 staff members and a network of 320 stores , the company has annual revenues of more than NZ $ 550 million and is listed on both the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges .

Kathmandu prides itself on providing customers with a comprehensive range of high-quality products designed to enhance their outdoor experience .

The challenge : Reducing costs and complexity to determine exactly what was being used , resulting in unnecessary complexity and cost .

“ Some stores had six or seven phone lines in place , and it had become very challenging to conduct an audit to determine where we could cut costs ,” said O ’ Connor . “ We realized that the best option was to replace our telephony infrastructure and wipe the slate clean .”

The solution : A perfect fit that ‘ ticked all the boxes ’

Once the company decided to find a new telephony platform , Kathmandu ’ s IT team evaluated three industry-leading solutions . 8x8 stood out for its ease of installation and configuration , and looked to be an ideal replacement for its legacy phone system .

Kathmandu Holdings operates a network of 120 Kathmandu-branded stores in Australia and 60 in New Zealand .

In the past , these stores had relied on telephony services delivered over copper wires . While this had worked well for many years , the infrastructure began to encounter problems about three years ago .

Additionally , there was no need for on-premise equipment , and there was potential for future expansion and additional features . According to O ’ Connor : “ 8x8 , was a perfect fit and ticked all the boxes .”

Genuine New Zealand and Australia presence for account management and support was a big advantage .

“ Many of our stores had been relying on a voice-over- IP ( VoIP ) service for some time . However , our provider told us they were discontinuing this service and could not offer us an alternative ,” said Aidan O ’ Connor , IT Infrastructure Manager at Kathmandu . “ We also needed to move away from the copper network as it was being replaced by the National Broadband Network ( NBN ).”

In early 2020 , Kathmandu adopted the 8x8 eXperience Communications Platform with 8x8 Work for its entire fleet of stores across Australia and New Zealand .“ We were very impressed with the responsiveness and proactiveness of the 8x8 team ,” said O ’ Connor . “ They took the time to carefully assess our requirements and were then able to offer a service that suited our operations .”

In addition , Kathmandu had added many phone lines to its store network over the years , making it difficult

Initially , the deployment plan called for all stores to migrate to the new platform by May 2020 , however ,

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