McCain Foods has signed a four-year agreement with Gen-i, a Telecom New Zealand business, to move all of its mobile connections to the XT Mobile Network.
A long-standing Gen-i client, McCain Foods is in the process of migrating 122 mobile voice and 21 mobile data connections for staff across the country.
The XT network is allowing McCain Foods to take advantage of the latest mobile technology at a crucial time for the company as it doubles its production capability in New Zealand.
McCain Foods operates manufacturing sites in both Timaru and Hastings, and is currently expanding its Hastings vegetable processing facility.
This expansion comes as McCain Foods gears up for a return to growth as the country emerges from the recession, says purchasing and distribution manager Bruce Dockary.
“Sales volumes dipped a little during the recession, but indications are that growth is coming back to the market as consumer confidence returns.”
Investing in new mobile communications will be essential to helping the company meet future demand in a very competitive industry, says Dockary.
An existing Gen-i mobility client, McCain Foods is progressively upgrading to the XT network as individual connections come up for renewal.
Equipping frontline sales staff with XT mobile broadband connections has already paid dividends – boosting McCain’s responsiveness to its customers and resolving a major historical issue for the company, explains Dockary.
“Before XT, our people on the road had to wait to get back to their hotel, home or office to access their email. Now they have the ability to regularly check email while they are visiting the coal face.”
Dockary adds this has improved the overall level of service McCain Foods delivers to its customers.
“We have absolutely boosted our service and are able to respond to our customers more promptly. This is extremely important as we operate in a very competitive market.”
The XT network has also provided improved coverage for McCain Foods, says Dockary.
“We are getting better coverage with XT. We certainly need coverage across the country given we are an agriculture-based company with people in some remote spots.”
This has enhanced the speed with which McCain Foods’ growers can feed details on crop quantities and quality back to its processing facilities. “This is probably one of the biggest uses of mobile communications for us. It is important to keep in touch with the guys out in the fields,” says Dockary.
Meanwhile, McCain Foods is working with Gen-i to looking at future options such as rolling out smartphones and mobile applications to improve the productivity of its staff even further.
“We are exploring what new applications are available to assist our people work smarter.”
Selecting XT as the future of its mobile communications was a natural progression for McCain Foods, based on the high level of service and support it has come to expect from Gen-i, says Dockary.
“We have always enjoyed a great level of support from Gen-i. We have a dedicated client manager, which makes dealing with Gen-i easy as there is one point of contact.”
McCain Foods also relies on Gen-i for its fixed line voice communications and has been a Telecom customer since it established its New Zealand operation in 1987, says Dockary.
Great service has formed the foundation of this relationship.
“Because we have a long relationship we have a high level of comfort about who we are dealing with. We know what capability and quality we can expect from Gen-i.”
In addition, McCain uses Gen-i’s eTXT service to communicate with seasonal staff. eTXT enables McCain to push out details of available work through text messages to the mobile phones of multiple workers with the touch of a button. “We have been using it for three years. It has become a key application for contacting staff,” says Dockary.
Chris Quin, Gen-i’ Australasia CEO, is delighted the company’s enduring relationship with McCain Foods has been extended to include XT mobile services.
“This shows that long-standing clients like McCain Foods recognise the great progress we are making every day in building a world class mobile network,” says Quin.
“We are increasing the resilience of the XT network, boosting its capacity to meet the data demands of an increasingly mobile workforce, and improving coverage to more places where clients, like McCain Foods, do business.”
On top of this, the backhaul systems that underpin XT have already been upgraded to prepare the network for the coming explosion in use of mobile data, says Quin.
“As a result, Gen-i can deliver converged ICT solutions that fully integrate mobility services with our clients’ IT and telecommunications capabilities. We look forward to continue working with McCain Foods to help them take advantage of the full benefits of integrated communications.”