The Challenge
In the fast-paced world of technology and telecommunications, Sangoma has proven that it is as dedicated to its customers’ needs as it is to delivering reliable, high-quality solutions for interconnecting disparate technologies.
Fonality, a leading provider of business phone systems that relies on Sangoma to supply Voice over IP VoIP gateway solutions in its platforms, have recently faced a technical issue that threatened to delay its customer’s deployments.
We saw an unusual failure in the production line that we couldn’t readily identify, and contacted Sangoma to help find a resolution,” said Jeff Valentine, Chief Marketing officer at Fonality. “The responsiveness and thoroughness of the entire Sangoma team was astounding.”
Fonality initially reached out to Sangoma for help in what it considered a product issue in anticipation of a quick and simple resolution. As a company that prides itself on delivering the highest level of quality and reliability in all of its products, Sangoma was fast to respond. Its management team was immediately alerted to the unusual situation, and resources were assigned to quickly get the matter settled.
However, when Sangoma dug into the situation, as is often the case when complex platforms are involved, it could not find any clear-cut product issues. The problem could not be replicated in the Sangoma lab, and other units from the same manufacturing batches tested fine. At this point, many vendors will simply tell a customer that the problem is on their end, and wait for more data. Sangoma however is not most vendors. The company is engineering-focused to the core, and insisted on investing in their customer by delving deeper into the problem with Fonality.
The Solution
Sangoma CEO Bill Wignall supported his team’s decision to immediately provide Fonality with a different Sangoma product that would enable it to immediately resume production and meet its customer’s expectations. Despite the costs involved, Sangoma made this decision based on its strong commitment to its customers.
We have all experienced vendors that simply want to point a finger back at the customer when it appears a problem is on the customer’s end,” continued Valentine. “This was not the case with Sangoma. The lack of empirical evidence of an issue seemed to invigorate their efforts and push them to look more deeply in order to get our production back on track. And the decision to absorb the cost difference in providing a replacement product was beyond the scope of what most vendors would do – it showed Sangoma’s commitment to its customers.”
With the Fonality production line back on schedule, Sangoma flew a team of engineers to the Fonality factory to gather more information about the technical issue. This included observation of assembly operations, interviews with design and operations personnel, and hands-on troubleshooting with the Fonality team. Armed with the data from their research and input from Fonality, the Sangoma team returned home to Toronto to hit the lab and find the root cause of the problem – and they did. An innocuous procedural misstep on the production line was causing the issue, and was easily remedied by Fonality. As a result, Fonality was able to immediately resume production with the original Sangoma products and put the matter to rest.
According to Frederic Dickey, Sangoma’s VP of Professional Services and Product Management, and the leader of the troubleshooting team, the cost of time and material resources consumed in identifying and resolving the issue was minor when compared to the value of getting Fonality production back on track.
Delivering the highest quality products is a point of pride for Sangoma, and this extends to the quality of support and troubleshooting we deliver when any customer reports an issue related to one of our products,” continued Dickey. “Sangoma has an industry-wide reputation for quality and reliability, and we back it up with a lifetime warranty on many of our boards. In situations like the one with Fonality, we could do no less than devote the utmost in engineering and operations resources of the company to work with the customer to identify and resolve this challenge.”
Sangoma invested in us as a customer and put top priority on resolving an issue even when it turns out it wasn’t their fault – this is truly the hallmark of a supplier that is committed to quality on every level,” concluded Valentine. “The unbridled commitment of the Sangoma team to collaboratively solve the problem, rather than assigning blame, and the agile and innovative actions by the entire troubleshooting team, are testaments to the company’s unwavering commitment to customers. Sangoma is one company that we are eager to continue working with and consider a partner, not just another vendor.”
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