Garda Uno

Security, Mobility and Sustainability: The innovaphone Cloud at the Multi Utility Company, Garda Uno

Implementing the innovaphone solution united Garda Uno’s four sites in one single PBX in the cloud, thus making it easier and more transparent for employees to utilize corporate telephony, which is one of the company’s most important and indispensable communication channels.

Garda Uno: A Multi Utility Company Providing Various Services for Public Institutions

Garda Uno was founded in 1974 at Lake Garda and has always been active in the environmental field. Originally, the service provider’s activities focused on protecting seawater. Over time, the company expanded its scope to include new, high-quality services such as: waste management, sustainable mobility, renewable energies, cemetery services, public lighting, public administration services, smart services and remote surveillance.

A total of 36 public bodies, 36 public institutions, including 34 municipalities as well as the Province of Brescia and the Alto Garda community, use these services. Thanks to its partner AGS Spa, the company also operates on the Veronese shore of Lake Garda.

Initial Scenario: Heterogeneous Hardware Infrastructure

The initial technical scenario at Garda Uno consisted of a switchboard and 3 branch offices that were not interconnected and were each equipped with different hardware. The only innovaphone device used in the company was an IP800 VoIP gateway, which served as the interface for the company’s toll-free number.

innovaphone myApps Cloud: A Decision that Convinced Everyone

The owners of Garda Uno, a future-oriented company, unanimously took the decision to switch to VoIP and replace the telephone system with a technologically advanced solution. The company attached great importance to having maximum mobility at all sites and not installing an on-premises PBX system.

“An analysis of the costs and the technical benefit was carefully evaluated during the solution selection process, with a focus on how complete, consistent and reliable a solution was. From the very beginning, the innovaphone PBX Cloud solution proved to be the solution that was both the simplest and had the greatest acceptance among our employees. Having the support of RBR, an authorized innovaphone partner that has accompanied the company for over a decade, gave us further peace of mind,” said Giuliano Fantato, Head of Smart Services at Garda Uno.

“By implementing innovaphone myApps in the cloud, all company sites were merged into a single PBX in the cloud. This provides Garda Uno users with a simple and transparent telephony solution, which is the company’s main communication channel and therefore of crucial importance,” said Marco Rizzi, RBR’s sales manager.

Especially during the pandemic, the innovaphone myApps Cloud communication platform, which is always accessible from any workstation in the office and from home, enabled the 180 employees to be operational despite the restrictions and enabled them to work together securely with familiar tools and also with new features. The management handled this situation in a positive and far-sighted manner, combining the needs of labor productivity with the needs of its employees. Employees were equipped with a laptop, mouse, monitor, and Internet connection to ensure working from home is more efficient and secure.

Simone Somensini, IT Manager at Garda Uno, explained: “The innovaphone One Number Concept simplifies work for users. Users especially appreciate the fact that they can still protect their privacy with regard to the phone number used despite maintaining maximum availability. User feedback to date has been absolutely positive.”

Installation and Architecture of the New innovaphone IP Telephone Solution

The implementation includes 96 innovaphone IP telephones and an innovaphone IP DECT solution consisting of 6 DECT base stations and 14 DECT telephones.

Regarding installation, Marco Rizzi declared: “The challenges faced during the installation are those that typically affect Italian users: some structural network deficiencies slowed down the installation phase somewhat, however they also increased the end value of the project, as all sites now have PoE switches. All-in-all, the project went as expected and in line with the customer’s requests.”

After a short familiarization process with the new technology, employees quickly became familiar with the myApps digital work platform, which has made a significant contribution to increasing the efficiency of business processes, especially with regard to mobility.

More than just VoIP

In addition to the usual features of IP telephony, the new solution architecture planned by RBR has brought additional benefits to users at Garda Uno:

• An IP DECT system that works across the enterprise, allowing employees to move within the corporate infrastructure without fear of losing coverage.
• Elimination of analog fax lines: Thanks to the fax-to-mail service, many faxes have physically been eliminated and company hardware has been streamlined.
• By reducing contracts and costs, the management of the system has been modernized and is more flexible.

innovaphone myApps Cloud: An Investment in the Future

Flexibility and the customization options of the innovaphone myApps cloud solution ensure the Italian service provider has a future-proof working environment. Although not all of the licenses and services offered by the system have been activated to date, they will be implemented in the second phase of the project to further facilitate collaboration and networking among employees. In the future the focus will also be on the cloud for new applications and on the data center, as the cloud guarantees continuous and secure updates by vendors and ensures the infrastructure is always up to date.

“Thanks to the new digital communications environment, the company is able to flexibly implement new hybrid work formats - keyword ‘collaboration’ . This also perfectly matches the company’s focus on sustainability and Garda Uno’s ‘green company philosophy’,” concluded Giuliano Fantato.