Success Stories

C&S Machine Products, Inc.

Industry: Precision Manufacturing
Founded: 1966
Location: Buchanan, MI
Telephone System: Cisco CallManager
Network: Microsoft Exchange
Cisco Solution: Cisco Unity™

A Manufacturing and Communications Innovator
Considered to be one of the premier manufacturers in precision machining, C&S Machine Products, Inc. is recognized throughout a national customer base as a technology leader. C&S reinforced that reputation when it adopted a new IP-based communications system in early 2000. "We had Microsoft Outlook, but that only covered the e-mail side of things," says Dominick Saratore, vice president of C&S. "What we really wanted was something that could bring everything together -- our telephone and voice mail systems, along with our incoming fax and e-mail traffic. Cisco Unity was the clear choice. It not only integrates with our new IP telephone system, Cisco CallManager, and offers unified messaging, but best of all it just fits with the way we do business at C&S. We're an innovative company and Cisco Unity is an innovative solution -- it's a good match."

The Convenience of a Single Inbox
Cisco Unity delivers every voice, fax, and e-mail message into a single inbox, giving C&S staff the power of centralized communications control. "Before Cisco Unity, I had to check a variety of different devices to get all my messages," recalls Steven Russell, C&S IT director. "Now, all I have to do is open up Outlook and it's all right there. It's a real time-saver to have only one place to check for all my messages. I can also respond to people faster than ever."

Flexible and Efficient Call Management
In addition to the convenience of unified messaging, Cisco Unity features customizable call handlers and an automated attendant to direct incoming calls quickly and accurately. "With the automated attendant, we can rest easy knowing that even when our receptionist is out, all of our calls are handled in a timely and professional manner," Saratore notes. "We also use the call handlers quite a bit since we update our outgoing greeting on a regular basis. It's great to have that flexibility."

Easily Customizable to Enhance Productivity
With ActiveAssistant™, Cisco Unity's browser-based personal administration interface, C&S employees have the flexibility to customize the system to meet their individual needs. "When we first installed Cisco Unity, the majority of staff on our shop floor had limited experience with computers," says Saratore. "Now, more than 60 percent of our workforce have e-mail addresses and use the system daily. Features like ActiveAssistant make it much easier to get familiar with the way Cisco Unity works. And everyone's more productive now that they can communicate over the system."

Russell agrees, noting that certain ActiveAssistant options yielded some unexpected benefits. "I didn't realize that I'd be able to screen my incoming calls until I started looking around in ActiveAssistant," he says. "Now I use it all the time. It's like having my own personal assistant."

Simplified Administration by Design
Cisco Unity's true unified architecture features a single directory service and a single message store to minimize administration and support costs. Its intuitive, dynamic, browser-based system administration console also saves time and money by making routine maintenance and administration tasks simpler than ever. "Being able to administer the entire system from the Web definitely makes things easier," Russell says. "I especially like the fact that we can handle all our IT functions in-house now."

Bottom Line Investment Protection
Designed to meet the needs of enterprise-level businesses,