Precision Husky is a heavy machinery and equipment manufacturer serving the forestry industry since 1964 with a 165,000 square-foot facility in Moody, Alabama. Billy Daniels, their VP of Engineering, decided to reduce their $2,000 a month phone bill by switching over to a VoIP-based phone system. However, the first few tries with such systems were challenged by network problems that caused VoIP issues. At that point Billy found out about Mushroom Networks’ VoIP Armor solution and deployed the system alongside a  Fonality-based VoIP system. Since then, phones have been up and running even during two disasters where an Internet pipeline was cut and a lightning strike damaged part of the network – Mushroom Networks’ rock-solid VoIP Armor solution kept phones alive. 

Reducing the high monthly phone bill without compromising on quality and reliability of phone calls

Precision Husky’s 30+ computers are dependent on reliable Internet connectivity for the services they use for ordering parts, accounting, engineering services and tools. Similarly, their 5 servers heavily relied on connectivity to the Internet. Precision Husky had a legacy PBX phone system that cost them $40,000 and $250 per phone. Their 30+ phones were costing $24,000 a year in phone bills alone and Billy, the VP of Engineering was determined to plug this money leak. He understood that the answer lay in a VoIP (Voice over IP) solution, but had also experienced, firsthand, the shortcomings of VoIP systems if the network is not glitch free.

Later Billy will learn that he had some other challenges coming his way. One coming from a wire cut accidentally by a sewer repair nearby, which would take down all the wired Internet access in the neighborhood. Another disaster will strike, literally as lightning, burning down some of the circuitry in Precision Husky’s local network. Luckily, Billy had designed his network with Mushroom Networks to withstand all those disaster scenarios.

After experimenting with some VoIP solutions, Billy decided to add MushroomNetworks’ VoIP Armor tunnel and Truffle appliance to his network – both to bring reliability and redundancy to his network, as well as to finally pull the trigger and fully move to a VoIP-based phone system.

On paper, VoIP solutions provided huge benefits and features. “The VoIP system provided 60% savings right from the get-go. After my experience with Mushroom Networks, I can simply say that every VoIP user needs 100% a Mushroom box – period”, added Billy, VP of Engineering at Precision Husky.

Billy has 2 wired WAN connection on his Truffle and 2 LTE cellular modems. The VoIP Armor tunnel is configured to seamlessly switch WAN paths as a function of the quality of the lines. As a result, all calls have been crystal clear and Precision Husky no longer suffers from any of the previously-existing VoIP problems.

Mushroom Networks’ VoIP Armor solution enabled a rock-solid VoIP system for Precision Husky. Cost savings were over 60% of the monthly phone bill and the investment on the Mushroom equipment was recovered in less than a few months.

VoIP Armor was so reliable that the phone system didn’t take a hit even when a lightning struck took out one of the WAN ports and the modem. Internet connectivity and the VoIP system were 100% shielded from the outage. Similarly when an Internet pipe was cut by accidentally by sewage repair workers, all wired Internet lines went down. However, the 2 LTE modems connected to the Truffle automatically took over the phone calls (including the ones that were ongoing), so calls continued without any hiccups.

Since Mushroom’s overlay tunnel can present an elastic static IP address to the outside world, including the hosted IP-PBX phone system, outages on the local WAN connections didn’t even impact the IP address the traffic was going to and from, and therefore all configurations of cloud services (including VoIP) that required static IP addresses stayed up and functional.

Precision Husky transformed their costly legacy PBX phone system into a rock-solid VoIP solution that was based on a hosted IP-PBX (Fonality). Connectivity to the Internet was Billy’s biggest challenge for his VoIP system and he was able to solve that problem and further add cost savings to his network by installing Mushroom Networks’ VoIP Armor solution. As Billy claims: “…every VoIP user needs 100% a Mushroom box – period.”