About
Julie Davies is secretary to the Chairman at Pam World Brands and Worldwide Golf, two companies working under the same director from a shared premises. As she explains, “Worldwide Golf downstairs—it’s quite a big building—Palm World upstairs. We share the warehouse… it works quite well actually. It’s run separately even though it’s got the same director.”
Pam World Brands imports and exports stylish workwear solutions by brands like Lee Cooper Workwear and Goodyear Workwear. They also handle Gold’s Gym sportswear. The golf division includes Island Green medium-range products, while Worldwide Golf focuses on high-end golf equipment and accessories. The companies moved to their current location from Salford four years ago.
The Challenge
Prior to working with Blue Box, when the companies were based in Salford, they experienced significant communication issues. “We used to be based in Salford before we moved here and we had endless problems, the system going down,” Julie recalls. As a business heavily dependent on telecommunications for international customer contact, conference calls, and Zoom meetings, any disruption was critical.
She emphasises this point: “It’s the main part of our business. If we can’t communicate… if we’re without phones for a day, I mean, it can cost us a lot of money.” They also needed a solution that would support remote working capabilities for staff traveling from distant locations.
The Solution
Blue Box implemented a comprehensive telecommunications system when the companies moved to their new premises. “We do a lot of conference calls and Zoom calls because we do have international customers and with the time difference etc, it works good for us that way,” Julie explains.
The solution includes an integrated phone system supporting both office and remote working, flexible call routing to ensure calls are always answered, and remote management capabilities for system updates and changes. The quality of installation has been particularly impressive: “We’ve got a comms room just with our comms things and they’ve actually said what a neat job it is… Even the CCTV people commented on it as well.”
The Outcome
The implementation has been highly successful. “We’ve not had any problems whatsoever,” Julie says. “If we have had [issues], they’ve been minor and they’ve been resolved straight away within the hour. I don’t think we’ve ever waited longer than that.” This is a significant improvement from their previous situation, with most technical issues now handled remotely without requiring on-site visits.
The system has proven particularly valuable for flexible working arrangements: “We have quite a few that have relocated and some come from quite a way off. So rather than traveling every day, they work from home… it works fine that way for us.” It also means they are able to provide efficient reception coverage during lunch breaks – the business keeps runnng when people are not there.
As Julie explains, the system’s flexibility allows her to handle multiple responsibilities effectively: “I’m the chairman’s secretary and obviously when he wants me I have to be there. I can’t just be sat downstairs on reception. So it works fantastically for us because we can answer the phones from upstairs, still carry on working and then anyone else, if I’m on the phone for any reason and he’s out of the office and he’s dictating it goes trips over onto the other phones. So someone always there to answer.”
Advice for Other Businesses
Julie can’t talk enough about Bluebox’s reliability and efficiency: “You’ve got fantastic backup… they looked after us, to be honest. And what I like is the quick service that you don’t have to wait and they get onto it straight away.”
She particularly loves the way they work: “They were very clean… they tidy up after themselves… at the time when we moved in here, we had boxes everywhere… but they looked after us.”
Their attention to detail has been noticed by others in the industry: “We’ve got a comms room just with our comms things and they’ve actually said what a neat job it is… Even the CCTV people commented on it as well.” It’s the same for the ongoing support: “If there’s never been… we’ve not really had any issues, to be honest, but very clean work and they tidy up after themselves.”