La Mondiale Europartner, a benchmark company in terms of tailor-made savings and pension solutions for high-end and international wealth clients, has integrated the company's fixed line telephony into the Teams solution.
To carry out this project, the company relied on the expertise of Proximus NXT. Now employees can make calls and be reached directly from their laptop, tablet or smartphone.
One of the main Luxembourg life insurance companies, La Mondiale Europartner develops savings and pension solutions that meet the wealth planning requirements of HNWI clients. As such, it is at the heart of a vast ecosystem of players and partners, distributors, asset managers, custodian banks. “Every day, our employees are required to interact with these different players via various channels, depending on each person’s needs,” explains Eric Persiali, Head of IT at La Mondiale Europartner. Landline telephony continues to play an important role in the way we collaborate and communicate with our customers. Many exchanges go through our call center, through which we support our customers on a daily basis.”
Unified communication tools
Until recently, the company's fixed line telephony relied on an analog telephone exchange. As telephone operators gradually abandoned copper networks in favor of IP technology, this infrastructure was on the verge of becoming obsolete. “We therefore had to migrate to a new solution,” continues Eric Persiali. Our teams already use Teams videoconferencing tools, so the decision was made to unify the communication channels used in the company with the Microsoft Teams solution.”
Many benefits
The advantages of the solution are numerous. Telephony now relies exclusively on the cloud. It no longer involves maintaining on-site infrastructure. The solution is maintained by the publisher. It is directly integrated into the laptop or smartphone and allows employees to be more mobile. It is no longer necessary, for most employees, to deploy fixed workstations. The last advantage, and not the least, lies in the fact that this solution is less expensive than the previous one.
Answer specific needs
Before opting for this solution, La Mondiale Europartner team carried out an in-depth analysis of the needs of users and the various departments in terms of telephony. “We took the time to compare the functionalities offered by the various solutions on the market, to see if they could meet our requirements,” assures the Head of IT. The main challenge was call management at our call center, with specific needs in terms of queue management, call forwarding, reporting, etc. It was also important to consider the needs in terms of volume, to properly size the solution.”
A complete offer, a single partner
Once the solution was chosen, the company looked for a partner on the market to implement it. For this project, La Mondiale Europartner called on Proximus NXT. “The operator stood out for the expertise it could bring to the project, both in terms of the tariff offer and the possibility of adding a mobile telephony offer to the fixed solution. Being able to rely on a single partner for all our needs was a real advantage, with administrative simplification as a result. We were also attracted by the continuity plan functionality provided.”
A five months migration
The project began in September 2023. La Mondiale Europartner and Proximus NXT, starting from the in-depth needs analysis, planned the deployment of the solution step by step, taking particular care to conduct a set of tests to ensure that everything was actually functional on the day of the migration. . “In total, some 200 people spread across 8 departments, including three who required the implementation of advanced functions, were affected by this migration,” continues Eric Persiali.
The migration was carried out on January 16, 2024. “We managed to carry out this project in less than five months,” emphasizes the Head of IT. For the record, the day after the migration, the roads in Luxembourg were covered with ice and everyone was invited by the authorities to stay at home. As the migration went as planned, our employees were able to continue working, making and receiving calls from Teams. Although we had not anticipated this ice storm and a need for mass teleworking, the solution deployed allowed us to deal with the situation, as planned, thanks to the agility and simplicity provided by the Teams Telephony solution.”
“Everyday, our employees are required to interact with these different players via various channels, depending on each person's needs. Fixed telephony still occupies an important place in the way in which we collaborate and communicate with our customers. Many exchanges go through our call center, through which we support our customers on a daily basis.”
Eric Persiali - Head of IT , La Mondiale Europartner