Guelph, Ontario-based Fusion Homes, credits Kitchener-based Atria Networks with providing it with industry leading network technology to help give it an edge in productivity and client service.
Fusion homes has been in business for over 10 years, beginning as a paper and fax-based company. Its original early, remote network servers had a history of being unreliable. “Our General Managers would arrive at the office at 5:30 a.m. only to find they could not work, because the server was down and support was unavailable,” says Lee Piccoli, President of Fusion Homes.
Fusion Homes received many favorable referrals to Atria Networks via word of mouth from IT experts, said Piccoli. Fusion Homes contacted Atria, and laid out its priorities:
To establish a network with better speed for the company’s remote users in offices throughout Southwestern Ontario.
To provide unified communication for all staff and offices, to ensure that the Fusion Homes team, and all departments within the company, are able to communicate quickly, seamlessly, and effortlessly.
To ensure the Fusion Homes network is as reliable as possible.
To implement best of breed network projects now, to ensure the company’s internal communications network is in place to accommodate future growth.
“Now, we are able to access real time data across all the offices. The easier it is for us to transfer information, the better we can serve our clients,” he said.
“The main needs of our network have been identified as increased reliability, and the ability to handle expansion of our business. That means our network system needs to grow with us. As a result of Atria Networks’ reliability and speed, all Fusion Homes departments have benefited from less downtime, quicker connection speeds, and unified communication. Fusion Homes is very happy with our investment in Atria networks. The service is excellent, and we appreciate having a team that is willing and eager to arm us with the Telecom solutions we need,” said Piccoli.
Part of Fusion Homes’ brand identity is its focus on environmentally-sound business practices and home designs. “We build energy-efficient homes, and as a business are taking steps to reduce our ecological footprint. We are always looking for way to reduce paper consumption and travel costs, and the inter-office applications we have been able to utilize over our Atria supplied network has helped us to reduce these cost, enabling the smallest carbon footprint achievable.
Piccoli said, “We recently introduced a more powerful server to address consistency and expansion issues. In addition, corporate Blackberries have been unified on the server allowing for wireless synchronization. Our networking system is now more reliable than ever before.”
In terms of Fusion Homes’ bottom line, Atria Networks has become a part of the company’s business model. “Our investments into their solutions touch all aspects of our business,” he added
Fusion Homes is continuing to work with Atria Networks to implement upgrades to the company’s network, to help them remain an industry leader. In 2008, Fusion won the prestigious 2008 Ontario Builder of the Year Award, and rated #1 in Customer Satisfaction at the homebuilding industry’s Tarion Awards of Excellence.
The proof is in the happiness of Fusion Homes’ customers. “Our customer satisfaction ratings are higher than ever. All our investments in our internal network system are implemented with our customer service top-of-mind,” said Piccoli.
Looking ahead, Fusion Homes will continue to roll out its strategy of continuous improvements. “We are implementing software that will fully integrate all departments company wide. This type of undertaking will be entirely dependent on a solid, high-speed network. We will also be adding servers in offices that currently use remote access. This will give remote users better access to information and will also provide backup and data recovery if necessary.”
“Going forward, Fusion Homes will continue to be a leading builder in Ontario, and beyond. In addition to building homes, we will be developing on our own land. In order to achieve our goals, we will require an extensive network to manage massive amounts of scheduling and other information.”
“It’s so important to have a solid foundation in order to build a business model that works. Atria Networks is providing us with that foundation. As our needs for IT and network solutions grow, we expect Atria to continuously improve on a great service, so that we will be able to keep up with our expansion needs, and keep Fusion Homes one step ahead of the competitive curve,” said Piccoli.