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Success story: How embracing mobility helped MHI Canada Aerospace save

In conversation with Rogers, the IT team from MHI Canada Aerospace offers their top 3 tips on enhancing collaboration, cutting costs and boosting your productivity. 

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Canada Aerospace (MHICA) builds heavy aerospace equipment, including the wings and centre fuselage for Bombardier’s Global Express.

Since its creation in 2006, the company has grown to have three facilities and 700 employees. MHICA plans to branch out more as they take on new business.

Legacy technologies harmed productivity and drove up costs

MHICA’s legacy system had reached its end of life, and they could no longer find parts for it. But before they purchased a new system, MHICA took a hard look at their mobility challenges.

To be mobile, employees kept cell and desk lines with separate numbers. Since many employees need to leave their desks and work on the floor, desk phone messages might be missed until the end of the day. If they routed calls to their cell phone, their desk phones became an expensive call forwarding service.

MHICA’s legacy system made expansion difficult. Hiring employees could mean up to six weeks installing hardware. “It was tough for us to drop lines because we have cranes in the building,” says Qayyum Maqbool, Senior IT Administrator. “Every time we dropped lines, we had to stop a lot of people.”

Rogers Enterprise Series: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Canada Aerospace

MHICA’s Leadership Team had a vision to go as wireless as possible and engaged Rogers to help reduce their reliance on cumbersome, legacy technology. With Rogers Unison™, employees stay connected at all times – whether on the factory floor or at the company’s headquarters in Japan.

“When Rogers offered us a flexible system, we decided that it was time to forget about our landlines and try something new,” says Hernani Martins-Pereira, Enterprise Resources Planning Manager at MHICA. “Rogers Unison allows us to add people quickly – without investing in heavy architecture.”

Immediate savings and increased productivity

Implementing a unified communications system has helped MHICA achieve the following results:

  • Boosted efficiency, as employees can collaborate from any location. As Martins-Pereira notes, “saving each employee just 15 minutes per day will save us millions.”
  • Simplified workflows and accelerated business growth. In a facility that runs 24/7/365, there is never a convenient time to run cables. MHICA estimates that moving away from landlines allows them to grow 10%-15% faster.
  • A cost savings of $300-$400 per line from replacing desk phones with mobile devices. MHICA has also avoided the costs of hiring three employees to manage their infrastructure – a savings of $200K per year.
  • High adoption rates. Employees like the intuitive, flexible service that lets them use their phones as normal.

3 steps to a more mobile, collaborative and productive business

MHICA’s success lies in its “mobile first” approach. Here are MHICA’s top three tips for embracing mobility:

1. Cut the cord

MHICA sees a future where employees can access all of their business applications on mobile devices. “You no longer need a desktop to do your job,” says Martins-Pereira. “Today’s wireless devices have more power than many desktops. Plus, they’re less expensive and more versatile.”

MHICA also believes that mobile devices make it easier for you to do business in real time, as they give you up-to-the-minute data.

“Real-time is more immediate on a mobile device than on a desktop, because you need to walk somewhere to use a desktop,” says Martins-Pereira.

2. Get one number to rule them all

Because so many of MHICA’s employees split their time between the shop floor and their desks, reaching an expert could mean trying multiple numbers.

“Now people only call one number,” says Martins-Pereira. “If someone has a problem on the production line and they need an engineer to do a fast calculation, we know that someone will pick up the call.”

3. Unify your telecommunications systems

Employees have different communications preferences. Some prefer desktops while others can’t live without their mobile apps.

When you unify all of your systems, you cut the fat from your employees’ routines. “With unified services, you resolve problems in real time,” says Ian MacDonald, Director, Program Office and IT. “No matter how people like to communicate.”

What works for you?

Moving to mobile isn’t all or nothing.

You can achieve results when you start small. For example, MHICA has kept a few desk phones for workers who aren’t mobile.

“You can have a touch of wireless, a touch of landline and a touch of IP,” says Maqbool. “It’s about unifying what you have to create a system that works for everyone."