G-Star RAW
Global retailer, G-Star unifies employee and customer communications on the journey to digital transformation
G-Star, also known as G-Star RAW, is a Dutch company and one of the most renowned clothing brands in the world. Starting from jeans, G-Star is now offering a variety of different products to suit every styling need. You can get unique designs of apparel, footwear, glasses and accessories all in one shop. G-Star's head office is located in Amsterdam, with multiple offices and stores around the globe.
Challenge
- Aging and disparate phone systems
- Needed reliable communications platform across multiple locations
- Lean IT team that needed more time to focus on higher priority initiatives
- Added costs and IT burden of having to maintain hardware and licensing
Value created
- Transition from a legacy phone system to a flexible, feature-rich, cloud-based solution that enables calls, messaging, meetings, and more collaboration
- Improved brand reputation with always-on, dependable customer support
- An intuitive admin interface that makes it easier for IT to get work done
- Cost savings with a flexible monthly subscription model
As one of the most popular clothing brands in the world, G-Star receives an enormous number of calls per day from customers, partners, investors, coworkers and other stakeholders about everything from payroll to return policies. This motivated G-Star to replace its legacy phone systems with Avaya Cloud Office® by RingCentral for richer, cloud-based communications features, simpler connectivity across all global locations, and ease of use and management—all as part of a more f lexible consumption model that leveled off monthly IT expenses.
Previously G-Star supported a disparate, not fully up-to-date and diverse communication environment with limited skilled resources. G-Star needed simpler connectivity across all locations to create cost efficiencies, while also reducing the burden on the small and nimble IT team.
G-Star began assessing different providers but prioritized looking at solutions from Avaya as an existing Avaya on-premises customer. That’s when the organization discovered Avaya Cloud Office, which is part of Avaya’s portfolio of UCaaS solutions.
Avaya Cloud Office provides the much-needed flexibility G-Star didn’t previously have, which has increased work productivity and user satisfaction. There was virtually no disruption in terms of user training. They switched from a hardphone to a softphone on their laptops or mobile phones. That ensured even less disruption of work.
G-Star was able to replace its aging phone systems while easing the burden on IT having to support hardware in-house, all while saving money compared to its former phone setup.
Flexible, feature-rich, cloud-based solution
In moving to Avaya Cloud Office, G-Star no longer has the need for traditional desk phones if it wishes as communications can be handled across any Internet-connected device (laptop, cell phone, tablet). The helpdesk team can do work orders before or after hours where they won’t be interrupting people during their workday. Before, these employees had to be tethered to the desk and were limited in what they could accomplish without causing disruptions.
As a public cloud solution, Avaya Cloud Office is always kept up to date, with new features and zero hardware churn or challenging upgrades. Updates happen automatic once per quarter, included at no extra cost. Users have everything they need to learn and work effectively, and admins will never have to worry about the communication solution being out-of-date.
"The quality of support we got – and still get – from Avaya is very well received, and the TCO was less than what we were paying to run our legacy phone system. On top of that we retain the Avaya name. You know the system is going to be reliable and high-performing, and our teams are familiar with Avaya having used an Avaya phone system for so long. Everything has a similar look and feel, which means less interruption during the workday trying to train and teach employees how to use a new system."
Edwin Blaak, IT Manager, G-Star
Cost efficiencies with increased system performance
As mentioned, the cost of Avaya Cloud Office ended up being less than what G-Star was paying to manage and maintain its existing on-premises phone systems. And at this lower cost G-Star is benefiting from higher performance with cloud in a low-risk environment.
Avaya Cloud Office can be used anywhere, anytime from any device to view information, make changes, and securely monitor communications. IT admins (or whoever is tasked with managing the solution) can easily manage information and office numbers, set up an auto receptionist, track billing, general usage, and credits, and get flexible role and permissions for ensuring communications remain secure and available when needed.
Avaya Cloud Office represents a key step in G-Star’s digital transformation plans, enabling employees to flexibly communicate anywhere, anytime, using any device to better serve customers, work more productively, and improve business outcomes – all with lower costs, hassles, and headaches.
Avaya Cloud Office represents a key step in G-Star’s digital transformation plans.
"Previously we had to come in at midnight to manually perform upgrades. With Avaya Cloud Office everything is included, allowing us to focus on higher priority IT initiatives."
Marco Warmerdam, Telecom Manager
About G-Star RAW
Denim. It’s our passion. It’s in our blood. But we are not just another denim brand. We’re RAW. Since 1989, we have been pushing the boundaries of denim design, manifesting our own future of denim. Hardcore Denim is the philosophy that pushes us to invent, explore and take craftsmanship to another level. Down to the smallest detail and with a strong belief that there is no limit to what denim can do. With innovation, sustainability and creativity at our core, we aim to bring pioneering styles and challenge industry standards, while constantly trying to improve our impact on people and planet.
1989
established