Thame, Oxon, UK: 5 May 2011 – The leading department stores group, Debenhams plc, chose MeetingZone as its preferred audio conferencing service provider based on its competitive and flexible pricing, and commitment to provide an easy migration path to the new service from that of Debenhams' existing supplier.

"As part of a review of our existing conferencing services, I researched the offerings of the leading providers in the marketplace. MeetingZone's ability to charge per second, rather than the more usual rounding up of time spent on a conference call by each participant to the nearest minute, was a key differentiator for us," explained Paul Munday, Debenhams' Technical Manager of Networks.


Debenhams, Oxford St, LondonAnother plus for MeetingZone was the availability of its geographic freephone numbers enabling participants to dial in to Debenhams' conference calls at no cost.

"An important factor in the choice of our preferred conferencing supplier was to minimise the resource needed from Debenhams during the transition from our existing supplier's service to the new solution," Munday continued.

MeetingZone carried out face to face training at Debenhams' head office locations and held online training sessions with employees at Debenhams' regional offices.

"The training we received coupled with the ease of use of MeetingZone's solutions, resulted in an extremely smooth migration path to the new service," confirmed Munday.

Audio conferencing is used throughout Debenhams' 161 stores across the UK and the Republic of Ireland and has become an essential business tool used to improve communications internally, and externally with Debenhams' third party suppliers and partners.

For example, regional directors hold their regular scheduled update meetings via a conference call to bring together all the store managers within their relevant region. Company-wide updates are also given by audio conferencing and can be accessed by all employees.

"Proof of MeetingZone's easy to use and reliable audio conferencing solution can be evidenced by the fact that I have never had to call its customer service team. The service just works!" concluded Munday.