Feature Story

March 28, 2006

Ascent Home Loans, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, was experiencing the typical frustrations of an aging PBX telephone system: long waits for faxes, sales people stopping at the office to pick up voicemails, and the company unable to support employees wanting to work from home offices.

"Our phone system was affecting our overall business efficiency," says Michael Dozois, part owner and head of correspondent lending for Ascent. "We had plans to expand into California and to attract high-quality sales representatives, we had to make a change."

Ascent Home Loans' 150 affiliates in the Western United States send loans through the company's central Las Vegas branch. Ascent was moving its headquarters and expanding with new branches in California. With phone resources clearly inadequate and an aging data network, Dozois knew the company needed a new network.

"Our network is critical because we're headquartered in Denver and have a lot of employees working in other states," he says. "Everything funnels through the headquarters. We needed new technology to tie everything together and make it work as one unit, so that all of our loans are handled correctly and close on time."

To help design and deploy this critical network overhaul, Dozois chose Aardvark IT Solutions, a company focused on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). With headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado, Aardvark is a Cisco Premier Certified Partner and SMB Select Partner with specializations in IP and Wireless LAN.

"Many small businesses have no IT staff, or a small staff trained primarily in Help Desk-type functions," says Wray Smith, president of Aardvark. "They often don't have expertise in network infrastructures or designing VPNs, security, network perimeter, and server security. That's where we come in."

The solution for Ascent Home Loans included Cbeyond Communications, which provides big business communication tools to small businesses. The company started by providing voice and broadand internet, and over the years has added applications like security, storage and messaging. Aardvark has teamed with Cbeyond for a number of years to help bring customers a total communications solution, from the carrier service provider to the customer site.

"We provide a stable, well-connected platform that we can build applications upon, giving customers the necessary tools to make their business more productive," says Brooks Robinson, CMO of Cbeyond Communications. "Aardvark has many valuable relationships with SMB customers. Working together, our two companies develop a perfect solution of Cbeyond service over a Cisco-powered network and deliver a powerful, robust communications solution that is usually out of reach of small businesses."

Dozois concurs, noting Ascent's growth plans and specific budget for IT staff and services. As Ascent grew, it cost more to keep the phone system in line with business demands, but the company did not have the overhead for the experienced IT staff the company needed in order to grow.

"Our core business is mortgage lending, not IT," Dozois says. "Our communications systems cannot negatively affect our daily, critical core business. I wanted to work with Cisco and Cisco Certified Partners so I was assured that we would have all the IT support necessary to take our business to the next level."

Dozois teamed with Ascent IT manager Kevin Kutsuma to evaluate several companies with VoIP solutions before choosing Aardvark and Cbeyond.

"We felt that Aardvark offered the best customer service and that its solution would be reliable," Dozois says. "Their Cisco IP certification was critical and Cbeyond uses Cisco equipment and infrastructure. It was important that a big company would back the equipment installed, and Cisco has a strong reputation. We wanted the solution to work right the first time, with a seamless transition from our old system."

The Aardvark IT Solutions and Cbeyond Communications converged networking solution for Ascent combines the Cisco Business Communications Solution featuring Cisco Call Manager Express with Cbeyond Communications voice and broadband Internet provider services. The tightly integrated package combines high-quality local and long-distance telephony services with T-1 Internet access, as well as a managed services network IP Communications solution at a fraction of what large businesses pay for the same telecommunications capabilities.

For Ascent Home Loans, Cbeyond Communications deployed its DID feature - Direct Inward Dial - so employees have their own phone number, not just an extension. The addition of DID to the Cisco/Cbeyond solution provides many opportunities for applications such as specialized call forwarding, simultaneous rings, integration of voice mail, email and faxes.

The Cisco all-in-one IP Communications system is based on a Cisco Integrated Services Route (ISR). The Cisco ISR integrates routing services with voice and data, protective firewalls, and secure virtual private network (VPN) capabilities. Cisco power over Ethernet runs directly to Cisco IP Phones, eliminating the need for power outlets at each phone.

Cisco ISR operates Cisco CallManager Express with Cisco Unity^TM Unified Messaging which also provides the affordable, secure call processing functionality. And Cisco Unity Unified Messaging provides integrated messaging services allowing Ascent employees to listen to their emails over the telephone, check voice and fax messages from the Internet, forward voice messages just like emails, and even forward faxes to any local fax machine.

The Ascent team expects to see an immediate 30-to-40 percent decrease in overall communications costs, and even more as the company expands as planned. These kinds of savings, along with the improved business efficiency, make the Aardvark/Cbeyond/Cisco solution like money in the bank for Ascent Home Loans.