World’s Largest Industrial Auction Company “Sold!” on Avaya Unified Communications

Centralised, SIP-based Avaya communications solution provided by Unity Telecom helps Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers increase efficiency, reliability and save more than $225,000 annually

Basking Ridge, N.J. – Avaya today announced that Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers – the world’s largest industrial auctioneer (NYSE and TSX: RBA) --  has created a global, centralised Avaya Aura™ unified communications environment that serves both permanent and temporary locations in North America, Europe and Asia.  The new system -- which supports more than 1,100 employees worldwide -- speeds critical transactions, increases network reliability and will save the company more than $225,000 annually.

As an industrial auctioneer, Ritchie Bros. sells used and unused heavy equipment and other assets for the construction, transportation, agricultural, material handling, mining, forestry, petroleum and marine industries at several hundred auctions around the world every year.

Auctions can take place at any of its 40 auction locations worldwide as well as occasionally remote, temporary locations. Each unreserved public auction triggers high volumes of communications activity before, during and after the event, with hundreds of people connecting to a central contact point and millions of dollars changing hands.

The Avaya Aura solution allowed Ritchie Bros. to move from a model of independent, multi-vendor systems with multiple, regional support teams to a single unified approach that covers all its locations, central call centre and mobile workforce. The change provides higher reliability during auctions where long distance lines can remain open for more than eight hours at a time to support the company’s online bidding service, and lowers communications costs for long distance, trunk lines and mobile phone usage.

Avaya Aura, which has been integrated with Microsoft Active Directory, enables all Ritchie Bros. employees to access a common directory from any location using their Avaya one-X® Communicator client interface.  As part of future plans, Ritchie Bros. is looking at integrating Avaya one-X Communicator with IBM Lotus Notes Sametime. This would enable employees to see whether colleagues are available for a live interactive session and simply click on their name to launch it, as well as play voicemails and manage their communications preferences from a single interface.

Ritchie Bros. selected Unity Telecom, a Platinum-certified Avaya channel partner, for the sale, implementation and ongoing support of the new system.

“The centralised directory, the mobility options, and the advanced features supplied by Avaya one-X Communicator make it possible to reach people quickly, to collaborate effectively, and to successfully interact with customers and business partners,” said Chris Farrer, telecommunications manager, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. “We’re very pleased with the Avaya technology and the superior service delivered by Unity Telecom. We look forward to further performance enhancements and new capabilities as we roll out additional network components over the coming months.”

Other benefits that Ritchie Bros. has gained from its Avaya Aura implementation:

- Increased communication speed and efficiency: Avaya’s uniform dial plan allows mobile employees to be reached through a single office extension number regardless of where they are located in the world.
- Cost savings: Ritchie Bros. will achieve several levels of savings. The initial $225,000 annual savings the company will gain from eliminating half of its trunk lines and reducing long distance utilisation will be increased when voice networks are further streamlined and least-cost routing kicks in.  Calls to and from mobile devices will also move to the network or least-cost routing to reduce international cellular costs. 
- Powerful mobility tools: The Avaya Aura solution enables mobile workers to turn almost any location into an efficient office environment. While traveling, users can connect with the office network, check Lotus Notes, manage e-mail, access voicemail and faxes, and play back voice messages. For any of these formats, the user can then add comments, forward to another user, e-mail to someone not in the network, and print.  A pending installation of Avaya one-X Mobile will further enhance this experience and use of the corporate directory.

“Our Avaya Aura solution, along with the 24/7 support we receive from Unity Telecom, enables us to offer our customers a high level of service, and to provide our employees with the tools they need to do business, regardless of location,” said Farrer

The Avaya applications, systems and services implemented by Ritchie Bros. include: Avaya Aura Communication Manager, Avaya one-X Communicator, Avaya S8730 Servers, Avaya S8500 ESS with disaster recovery, Avaya G450 Media Gateways, Modular Messaging R5 with MSS and MAS servers, Avaya AES server, Avaya 9640 IP phones, and Avaya 2410/2420 digital phones.