Marel improves productivity and accuracy with help from Spectralink

By Lindsay James on 15 October 2018

Marel improves productivity and accuracy with help from Spectralink

Marel, a global provider of advanced processing systems and services to the poultry, meat and fish industries, has over 4,000 employees dispersed over 30 countries, with 16 manufacturing facilities.

Marel’s strongest presence is in the BeNeLux region, with over 1,100 employees are based in the Netherlands, with offices in Oss, Boxmeer and Dongen. Marel's equipment and systems help food processors of all sizes, in all markets, to operate at peak productivity.

Marel was using an antiquated traditional telephony system which was no longer meeting requirements, so it started a search for an alternative for its Boxmeer and Dongen locations.

After a few months, its traditional PBX telephony environment was phased out and replaced with Microsoft Skype for Business. This new unified communications platform is used by Marel worldwide for all its communications and allows Marel to communicate with external parties and internal employees via voice, chat messages, video conversations and online meetings.

However, to maximise this investment, Marel was keen to maintain its existing telephone switchboard. Therefore, Marel sought a new, reliable DECT solution.

“In our opinion, technologies other than DECT were not stable and robust enough to use within Marel,” says Rob Janssen, global IT infrastructure manager at Marel. “This was also the case for consumer mobile phones, where we looked at the average number of calls, duration and the number of different service plans per phone. The prohibitive cost and variations helped the IT department to build a business case for a DECT solution.”

Marel was introduced to Spectralink – a Microsoft partner whose mobility solutions could not only withstand the harsh manufacturing environments for which they were needed, but which also offers the only direct integration with Skype for Business. As such, it became clear very quickly that Spectralink was the best party to work with.

Marel decided to purchase the new system with matching DECT handsets, that are compatible with the Microsoft Skype for Business solution. The 7622 handset was specifically selected to allow employees to send secure text messages.

Spectralink’s DECT solution with Skype for Business is currently used at the offices in Boxmeer and Dongen, where about 1,000 employees in total are based - ensuring these employees can communicate more quickly and efficiently with each other without interference due to the high quality of the voice calls.

“During the implementation, we were supported very well by Spectralink,” says Christian Stoltz, IT infrastructure specialist at Marel. “The only change experienced by our employees was a change in equipment. The goal was to make the transition as efficient as possible and we, with Spectralink, succeeded. Even when Marel faced some start-up problems, Spectralink followed this up and solved the issue efficiently and adequately.”

Janssen added: “A big benefit of the new system and Skype for Business, is that employees have insight into the status of their colleagues. If the phone is not answered, they can see if that person is already on the phone, in a meeting, or out of the office.”