Ciello Success Story
Ciello transforms platform control and customer experience with Alianza
Before Alianza, Ciello Lacked Platform Control
INDUSTRY
Rural Electric Cooperative (REC)
VERTICALS
Power, Broadband Internet, and Telephone Service
PRODUCTS
Cloud PBX, Home Phone, and SIP Trunking
Company
Ciello was started by San Luis Valley Rural Electric Cooperative, an 85-year-old power company. Today, Ciello’s high-speed fiber and wireless internet network passes 16,000 homes and businesses in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Their mission is to leverage their existing power infrastructure to bring broadband internet and phone services to underserved areas.
Key Challenges
Ciello was struggling due to a lack of platform control with their previous hosted softswitch provider, whose customer issue resolution processes caused huge delays and impacted their customer’s experience. Outdated, manual processes increased the workload for Ciello employees who had to juggle support tickets, manage expectations, and keep customers up to date.
Goals & Requirements
Ciello was looking for a robust, future forward platform that allowed them to have better control over their customer support and ordering system to improve the overall customer experience. Their new solution had to meet the following requirements:
Increased platform control and centralized management
Accelerated speed-to-market to enhance their growth
Modernized issue resolution timelines, processes, and customer experience
Control over orders and rapid support response time
Correct problematic, manual processes that delayed porting from other providers
Platform control to investigate and fix customer problems on their own
Why Alianza Works for Ciello
Ciello evaluated and compared several providers, but nothing stood out until Johnson met Kevin Dundon, EVP of Sales and Marketing at Alianza, at an event in Denver. “Kevin Dundon and I went to breakfast one morning, and in short order, he convinced me [Alianza] was a mighty good platform, and it answered a lot of the issues we were having. The rest is history,” said Monroe Johnson, Chief Technology Officer at Ciello.
Ciello was looking for increased platform control and faster support times, and Alianza’s cloud communications platform gives them just that. Within Alianza’s easy-to-use, intuitive web portals, employees can now review and resolve customer issues within a matter of minutes — often while the customer is on the phone. And for issues that do require a support ticket, they’ve noticed a significantly improved response time, typically within 24 hours. “We’re in control, and that makes a big difference.”
Ciello’s Solution Suite
Alianza’s virtual phone system offers remote deployment, seamless integrations, and modern calling features such as IVR, call groups, and voicemail to email.
SIP Trunking connects customers’ existing IP PBX infrastructures to the cloud. A single trunk can support one to many hundreds of calls, meeting the needs of any organization.
“Landlines aren't dead. There's still a lot of areas in our valley that aren’t covered well with cell service. Many people will get our service for that reason.”
Benefits of Alianza's Cloud Model
With its multitude of sought-after features and attractive pricing, the Alianza cloud communications platform offers a unique solution to all the issues faced by Ciello. But the benefits go beyond the product suite.
Here’s what CTO Monroe Johnson had to say about the benefits they value most:
Here’s what CTO Monroe Johnson had to say about the benefits they value most:
Enhanced Features
Alianza has features they couldn’t get before. “We were struggling to get some features that are more cutting-edge and high-tech, like voicemail to email and voicemail transcribed to email.”
Faster Onboarding
Alianza enables Ciello to place their own orders. “Whether it’s 25 lines or 1 line, we’re onboarding customers so much quicker because we’re getting port rejects in an hour instead of two or three days.”
Efficiency & Growth
“We’re just a lot more efficient with Alianza, and we reduced our costs significantly. There is no doubt Alianza has allowed us to increase our customer growth.”
E911 Handling
“There are so many over-the-top phone providers that send their 911 calls to a clearing house, but our 911 calls go directly to the local PSAP. You guys do 911 the real way.”
Number Ordering
“The fact that we can get new numbers immediately is amazing because [our previous provider] had a four-day turnaround time. Now if somebody wants a new number, we can literally do it that day.”
Continual Innovation
“Alianza shares their roadmap with us. And I know if I have a feature a customer really wants, I can call and get that into the roadmap, when and if it’s feasible.”
User Enablement
“I really like Alianza’s user guides. Our CSM recently introduced us to those. We went through and white-labeled the guides, and now all our hosted customers have one.”
User Web Portal
“We have a link on our website that takes people right into the portal where they can make many feature changes on their own.”
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