Customer Case Study
Five Senses Coffee adopts Cisco Collaboration to
improve employee productivity and customer service
Key points
Business need
Introduce a streamlined
collaboration system to improve
communication, enhance corporate
culture and connect geographically
dispersed teams in Western
Australia and east coast offices.
Solution
Five Senses Coffee uses Cisco
Business Edition 6000 and Cisco
Unified Communications Manager
to streamline collaboration using
premium voice, video, mobility,
conferencing, instant messaging
and presence technology.
Benefits
Enhanced inter-office
communications, quicker resolution
of business- and peoplemanagement issues, and improved
staff productivity have resulted in
strong financial benefits.
Poised for rapid expansion
Established in 2000, Five Senses Coffee is a family-owned coffee roasting and
supply business based in Rockingham, Western Australia. Its success has seen
the company grow its business locally and globally to encompass coffee roasting,
barista training and online sales.
Five Senses employs about 70 people across four offices in Western Australia and
Victoria. Each state has a sales and training office, a roastery, and a production and
administration office. The team includes several buyers who travel the world sourcing
coffee beans to send back to Australia for roasting and distribution.
Despite its relative youth, Five Senses Coffee has stamped its place in Australia’s
café culture and is growing rapidly. The company recruits five to 10 people each year
and now has its sights set on conquering the competitive coffee supply market in
Australia’s eastern states.
Growing business, growing needs
Cost savings through travel reduction
Five Senses also understood that a reduction in travel expenditure was key to
supporting its expansion plans, as the funds could be reallocated to other areas
of the business to aid growth.
In 2010, a Cisco global study conducted by Ipsos Mori found dramatic differences with
users versus non-users.1 The overwhelming majority (90 percent) of frequent users
(those who use videoconferencing technologies once or more per week) say video
collaboration technologies save them at least two hours of valuable work time a week.
Cisco research has also found that companies around the world have saved
hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by offering employees alternatives to
traveling for internal or customer meetings. One such example, global architectural
and design firm Woods Bagot, saved US$440,000 on travel costs alone in just one
year as part of a pilot program to connect its Sydney, Dubai and San Francisco
offices with video collaboration technologies.
1 Cisco White Paper, Global Study: The benefits and barriers to video adoption, 2010.
1 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
“When we discovered this
Cisco communications
technology we knew it
was what we’d been
looking for so we grabbed
it with both hands.”
— Gavan Hogan,
National Human Resources
Manager, Five Senses Coffee
In addition, a 2010 report by Bernstein Research found that technical advances in
videoconferencing have moved the capability to an entirely new level over the last
18 months.2 The firm reported that early adopters of video conferencing could replace
70 percent of internal travel and 10 percent of external travel over the next 10 to 15
years. This in turn will enable them to cut down their corporate travel spending by as
much as 21 percent.
Streamline inter-office collaboration infrastructure
As the business continued to expand, Five Senses faced internal communications
issues related to growth. The company’s geographically remote headquarters made
it reliant on internal and external collaboration. However, its communications systems
were not as efficient as they needed to be in light of its expansion plans. The company
relied on separate PABX phone systems in its roastery, production and administration
offices in Western Australia, and Melbourne, Victoria.
“We knew that improved collaboration was vital to business growth,” says Sexton.
“Previously, our sales and training team could only communicate via mobile phone.
We knew we could improve productivity if we provided staff with more flexible and
cost-effective ways to communicate with each other.”
Face-to-face communication to convey context
The company’s geographically dispersed office structure presented unique
communications issues that affected their bottom line. Several executives,
including the Human Resources Manager, are based in Melbourne, making it
hard to communicate with teams in Western Australia.
“It was difficult conducting conflict-resolution meetings via phone or email,”
explains Gavan Hogan, National Human Resources Manager, Five Senses Coffee.
“Unlike a face-to-face meeting, I didn’t have the context provided by facial
expressions and body language to guide me.”
To enhance communication by adding the context provided by visual cues,
Five Senses wanted to have video available on every employee’s desktop and
provide videoconferencing between the Western Australian headquarters and
main Victorian office.
Increase technological capability to improve customer service
Five Senses was also keen to improve customer service and its online store by
making it easier for staff to collaborate.
“We’re managing a lot of blends and origins of coffee each day,” explains Caleb
Sexton, National IT Manager, Five Senses Coffee. “The availability of different
products changes daily and we have to ensure our online store is always up to date.
But the only way some of our staff could work together to update the online store
was via email or mobile phone, which was not as efficient as it could be.”
Flexible systems to enable growth
As part of its expansion plan and to future-proof its collaboration infrastructure,
the company also had to ensure that any new communications technology it
introduced could quickly scale to add new offices and users.
2Carl Wiese, Vice President, Global Collaboration Sales, Cisco, The Return on Collaboration:
Assessing the Value of Today’s Collaboration Solutions, 2010.
2 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Solution
In March 2013, Five Senses took the opportunity to see Cisco’s collaboration
systems in action.
“I recently had to resolve
an issue between two
Perth-based staff
members. In the past it
would’ve taken at least
two days to sort things
out via email. I had them
both on the video phone
and the problem was
resolved in five minutes.
It’s a huge step forward.”
— Gavan Hogan,
National Human Resources
Manager, Five Senses Coffee
“We visited Cisco’s Melbourne Demonstration Centre and were impressed by the
possibilities of Cisco Jabber, the unified communications client app that provides
presence, instant messaging and video calling capabilities,” says Sexton.
In June 2013, Five Senses worked with Cisco business partner Comscentre to
implement a centralised collaboration and videoconferencing architecture based
on Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 6000, an integrated
platform for medium-sized enterprises.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager enables Five Senses to centrally manage
voice and video systems in its four office locations in Western Australia and Victoria
using a single platform.
Comscentre, a Cisco Advantage Unified Communications Partner and Master
Managed Service Provider, installed 50 Cisco Unified IP Phone 8941s with integrated
voice and video across the four offices.
“There was minimal interruption to their daily business, because the learning curve
for the solution was low,” says Sexton.
The Cisco Unified IP Phone 8900 Series includes a Cisco EnergyWise Power Save
Plus mode, which reduces power consumption in off hours, resulting in substantial
cost savings. Another energy-saving feature called Power Save also works with Cisco
EnergyWise technology. Power Save mode turns off the LCD when the phone is not
in use. Both features offer substantial cost savings to a corporation. For example, in a
three-year time span an average company with 1,000 users can save US$100,000.3
Comscentre also installed the Cisco Jabber app on iPad for executive staff and
frequent travellers, and on office PCs.
In November 2013, Five Senses introduced videoconferencing, installing two Cisco
TelePresence SX20 Quick Sets in the company’s boardrooms in Rockingham and
Melbourne. The entire collaboration infrastructure can quickly scale to add new
offices and users.
Benefits that speak for themselves
Enhanced inter-office communication
The combination of Cisco video, voice and instant messaging has vastly improved
communications between offices.
“Seeing people’s faces and body language when I talk to them makes my job so
much easier,” says Hogan. “I recently had to resolve an issue between two Perthbased staff members. In the past it would’ve taken at least two days to sort things
out through email. I had them both on the video phone and the problem was resolved
in five minutes. It’s a huge step forward.”
3Cisco White Paper, Cisco EnergyWise Return on Investment with Cisco Unified IP Phones,
page 2, 2013.
3 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Improved employee productivity
Time and distance are no longer hurdles for Five Senses employees. Every day, they
use Cisco Jabber to communicate and ensure processes run smoothly across the
accounts, marketing, orders, sales and training departments.
“Distance is no longer
a barrier and we
can draw on a wider
pool of talented staff,
regardless of their
physical location.”
— Gavan Hogan,
National Human Resources
Manager, Five Senses Coffee
“The head of our Green Bean team is based in Perth but travels the world sourcing
products,” says Sexton. “Each week she liaises with the Rockingham-based Marketing
Manager to let him know which coffee blends are available for sale. It used to be a
time-consuming process via email. Now they communicate using Jabber and it’s a
quick, affordable and simple process.
“With added flexibility making it easier to do their job, employee attitudes and job
satisfaction have also improved.”
Enhanced business processes
According to Sexton, Cisco Jabber has also enhanced business processes across
departments, from checking and tracking orders and deliveries, to managing
product shipments and sales. “By making it easier for staff to communicate between
departments, Cisco Jabber has helped us enhance customer service even further,”
he adds.
Meeting future growth plans
With business growth on the horizon, a flexible communications system was a critical
component of Five Senses’ strategic plan. According to Hogan, the company’s
centralised collaboration and videoconferencing architecture will be critical to the
continued success of the Five Senses brand.
“When we discovered this Cisco communications technology we knew it was what
we’d been looking for so we grabbed it with both hands,” he says. “Distance is no
longer a barrier and we can draw on a wider pool of talented staff, regardless of their
physical location.
“The cost-effectiveness and scalability of our collaboration infrastructure will help us
continue to expand and grow effectively, now and into the future.”
Products and services
Unified Communications
Cisco Business Edition 6000
Cisco Unified IP Phone 8900 Series
Collaboration Applications
Cisco Jabber
Cisco WebEx Meeting Center
TelePresence
Cisco TelePresence SX20 Quick Set
Switches and Routers
Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series Switches
Cisco 2900 Series Integrated Services Routers
Mobility
Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controllers
4 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
This customer story is based on information provided by Five Senses Coffee and describes how that
particular organisation benefits from the deployment of Cisco products. Many factors may have contributed
to the results and benefits described; Cisco does not guarantee comparable results elsewhere.
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