As businesses grow their requirements change. What worked five years ago may not do so today, especially when you factor in a changing business, regulatory and political environment. It is therefore essential that any investment made in internal systems is future proofed to avoid the need for expensive reinvestment in the future.

This is particularly the case in the telecoms world, where constantly evolving solutions can enable improved business efficiency and increased customer service levels. Coupled with older technologies becoming redundant, this means that businesses need consider the future when making decisions now.

The Grapevine have been selling wines and spirits both online and instore since 2006. They offer an upmarket online shopping experience that includes all whisky brands and liqueurs as well as premium spirits. Their website features outstanding search facilities, comprehensive tasting notes compiled by experts and an exclusive Executive Club that provides special offers and discounts to its members.

In addition to an extensive range of fine spirits, The Grapevine offer a variety of arrangements, which can be specially ordered to suit, which make a perfect centre piece at a party or conference or provide an impressive gift to friend, family or colleague. Each presentation is expertly designed and handcrafted in-store with the recipient in mind and delivered without any purchase information attached.

Their team is made up of dedicated and knowledgeable sales people, expert wine and spirit aficionados and creative minds to provide an expert and professional service to thousands of satisfied clients all across the world.

Fibre broadband connection

The Grapevine’s experience of working with Alfonica started small, way back in 2011 when a single phone line was installed into their Hendon location. Following on from this, in Jan 2015 they became dissatisfied with their existing broadband supplier and switched to Alfonica, who installed a new fibre connection in their Stamford Hill store.

Head of operations, Abe Lubelsky said, “We were really happy with the job that Alfonica did when they installed the broadband. All the problems we were having previously just disappeared and the whole process, from beginning to end, was smooth and trouble free

As a result of this work, when The Grapevine warehouse in Tottenham required a new phone system, in Mar 2015, they turned to Alfonica. A new hosted telephony system based on Yealink hardware was subsequently specified and installed.

Hosted phone system seamlessly connects four locations

Since then The Grapevine has continued to grow and Alfonica have looked after their burgeoning telecoms requirements. The hosted phone system now connects all four locations across London, and they have installed a total of seven dedicated fibre broadband lines. In addition, Alfonica also look after The Grapevine’s mobile phone needs.

Abe commented, “Communication between all our locations is now greatly improved due to our integrated phone systems. This has helped to bring us all together in one team as well as improving the service we can provide to our customers.

“Everything has been setup for us in a clear and easy to use fashion and we can quickly transfer incoming calls between our different locations, without the customer having to redial.”

Exceptional level of customer service

Abe continued, “Alfonica are, without doubt, one of the best companies we work with. Whenever we have a problem or a question, we get a prompt and professional response from them and things are resolved very quickly.

“We had a situation where our lines went down during a very busy period, that if unresolved would have been very costly for us. The Alfonica CEO came over and personally fixed the problem within an hour. It is this exceptional level of service that makes Alfonica stand out from the crowd and I would have no hesitation in recommending them to anybody looking for a business telecoms solution.

“Their capability to look after and integrate all our telecoms needs from broadband to mobiles, means that we can more easily manage things from our end, having only to deal with one supplier.

“As The Grapevine continues to grow we know that the future-proofed telecom systems that Alfonica has installed for us will be able to cope with the changing business circumstances that the next few years will bring. Knowing we have them to support us, means there is one less thing for us to worry about.”