Crowthorne helps Essilor UK reduce costs and improve efficiencies

Essilor has had a presence in Britain since 1881 when Société des Lunetiers opened it’s British operation in Hatton Garden, London. It maintained a presence in the city until 1975 when the company moved its offices and production facilities to Thornbury, near Bristol.

Essilor UK employs in excess of 400 people in the UK and has some of the world’s most up-to-date plastic lens surfacing and coating equipment. Essilor UK and Crowthorne have worked closely for many years during which time Crowthorne Associates have been appointed as a Collaborative Supply Chain Partner (CSCP) status to the Essilor UK Group.

Essilor initially needed a Communications partner who could pull all aspects of their telecommunication together under one management whilst at the same time ensuring they achieved substantial savings. The initial brief was to consolidate onto one bill whilst reducing the costs of the calls and lines at the Thornbury head office.

The move to Crowthorne billing meant that Essilor achieved immediate savings from Crowthorne’s reduced charges for both lines and calls. Having transferred all the line rentals on to a single bill Crowthorne analysed both the call profile and the line usage. This analysis enabled a number of analogue lines to be ceased whilst transferring their services to the main ISDN circuit through the telephone system achieving further savings.

Once this exercise was completed at Thornbury Crowthorne was asked to carry out the same process at other sites within in the UK group. Once the improvement in the landline services was completed Crowthorne were asked to carry out the same task with the mobile phone billing. A similar process to that used in regard to the landlines was used and in doing so Crowthorne identified a made savings by ensuring that each mobile user was on the most cost effective tariff.

Essilor have benefitted from the fact that Crowthorne offer a single helpdesk and billing platform for all their comms as they now only have one team to deal with. Additional services such as the fraud watch service that Crowthorne offer on both landline and mobiles mean that Essilor get immediate notification of any suspected misuse of lines or any dramatic change in call profiles. This service has already proved itself worthwhile having saved what could have been significant over spends.

During 2011 Crowthorne delivered unified communications solutions across Essilor UK Group companies which further reduced costs whilst enhancing broader based service solutions. This involved the creation of a MPLS voice network that brought about further cost reductions whilst improving efficiencies.

Crowthorne have achieved CSCP status (awarded to less than 2% of Essilor’s suppliers) by consistently delivering competitive, value for money innovative solutions supported by excellent customer services and a professional, ethical, sustainable and progressive relationship. The fact that Crowthorne could offer a one stop supply and support services has reduced the work load on the Essilor staff.