Frank Keane Holdings newest car dealership, Frank Keane Volkswagen on the Long Mile Road in Dublin, has invested €20,000 in a state-of-the-art unified communications platform, provided by Abacus Systems, that allows full connectivity for staff and cost management.

The new Frank Keane Volkswagen dealership is in a busy prime location and the business is divided in two separate sites: workshop and showroom. The main goal of the IT project carried out by Abacus was to connect both locations with a seamless unified communications platform.

"The solution had to be compatible with Volkswagen's high tech specifications," explains Eoghan Johnson, from Abacus. "Connectivity on and between the two buildings was achieved using fibre optic, copper and wireless communication."

Another major goal of the new IT infrastructure was enabling mobility for staff.

"Frank Keane Volkswagen sales and engineering staff is constantly on the move so the company needed a system that would allow them constant contact," says Johnson. "Call cost analysis also had to be taken into account, to allow the company to minimize costs using modern technologies."

The new Volkswagen dealership now enjoys fully unified communication for mobile, land line and e-mail at all times, across both sites. The system also gives the company full visibility of costs so they can be analysed and minimized.

"From both an IT and telephony perspective we needed to implement a seamless infrastructure for the dealership as a whole. The solution provided included wireless (radio) link between premises carrying both voice and data traffic," says Paul Ancker, Group IT Manager for Frank Keane Holdings. "The unified system is delivering the business efficiencies we had required and envisaged."

The new IT infrastructure includes wireless point to point connectivity between showroom and workshop; wired and wireless telephony in showroom and workshop, as well as WiFi for guest access. The IT project was completed in the space of a week, for minimum disruption, including cabling, connectivity and set up of the telephone system.

"In addition, the system is managed from a centralised IT function at the head office. Because there is no onsite IT expertise, we needed to implement a system that was easy in terms of administration and easy to use for staff on site," adds Johnson.

Abacus Systems won the tender based on track record with Frank Keane and the Cisco platform offered a single, end to end solution covering all elements of the project.

Abacus Systems has been working with the Frank Keane Group on different projects for nearly 15 years, including Frank Keane BMW, Frank Keane Volkswagen and Mitsubishi Motors.

The dealership on Long Mile Road is the newest addition to the Volkswagen Dublin Dealer network and will see Frank Keane Volkswagen create 50 new jobs over the next few months at the showroom.