PanTerra's Unified Cloud Service is Optimized for Franchises

PANTERRA’S UNIFIED CLOUD SERVICE IS OPTIMIZED FOR FRANCHISES

Executive Summary

The franchise concept began in the 1950’s with such well-known names as McDonald’s, Holiday Inn and Midas. Today there are over 2,500 different franchisors in the US alone with a new franchise business opening up every 8 minutes! The key for both franchisor and franchisee is to have a simple, consistent, easy to deploy and replicate franchise model. A significant part of that model is the IT infrastructure, which provides the “glue” between franchisees with potentially multiple franchise locations, their customers and the franchisor wanting to track, manage and adjust their franchise network to peak performance. In today’s competitive world, a franchise that doesn’t have the best IT infrastructure will most likely fail.

PanTerra’s Unified Cloud Services delivers consistent, secure, scalable, ultra-reliable communications, contact center, file sync & share and business analytics specifically optimized for the franchise model, regardless of size. A single customizable 100% unified communications cloud solution, PanTerra’s service eliminates equipment capital requirements per franchise and can be flexibly configured or reconfigured to meet the ever-changing demands of a franchise. PanTerra’s franchise solution includes:

Customizable Multi-Location, Multi-Payment Billing – PanTerra developed a unique fully customizable billing system optimized for all franchise models from fully distributed billing to centralized billing and any hybrid configuration in between.

100% Cloud Infrastructure for Fast, Flexible, Scalable Deployments – PanTerra’s 100% cloud infrastructure means super-fast, consistent deployments that can be adjusted on the fly and can scale to meet all your business needs now and in the future.

Ultra-Reliable & Secure with Built-In Business Continuity – PanTerra delivers 99.999+% reliability, HIPAA compliant security and built-in business continuity thru its 100% redundant cloud infrastructure.

Multiple Cloud Services Simplify & Save – PanTerra’s unique multiple cloud services including communications, collaborations, contact center, file sync & share and business analytics can be customized to each user’s requirements simplifying administration and maintenance while saving significant money over multiple separate services.

PanTerra is fully committed to delivering the most secure, reliable, cost effective cloud service optimized for franchises. See how PanTerra can be your franchise’s unified cloud service provider today.

The Franchise Model

With over 2,500 separate and distinct franchises in the US alone, the franchise model has proven to be a long lasting viable means for people to leverage brands and resources to create business opportunity. Franchising is defined as a long-term cooperative relationship between a franchisor and one or more franchisees in which the franchisor grants the franchisee the right to sell and market the franchisor’s product or service. A franchisee may own one or more franchise business locations and in many instances, the franchisor dictates certain guidelines such as specific IT infrastructure services or back-end billing services to which the franchisee must adhere.

In order for the franchisor/franchisee interaction to operate with optimum efficiency, the IT infrastructure and services for both the franchisor and franchisee needs to be a unified total solution.

The Franchise IT Infrastructure Challenge

In a typical corporation, the IT infrastructure is centrally architected, configured, deployed, maintained and managed by a group of IT experts. In a franchise model, there are multiple business owners, many or most, with little to no IT expertise. The franchisor does not have direct control over the IT infrastructure at each franchisee location. This can create an incredible IT infrastructure challenge for both franchisor and franchisee, which can result in lost productivity, inefficiencies, inconsistencies and excessive operating costs.

It is rare that individual franchise locations have IT resources to manage and maintain multiple IT services. As the number of IT services grows (phone system, file sync & share, social media, analytics, contact center, etc…), franchisees will be faced with the challenge of how to install, configure and maintain all these services.

Another very real and specific challenge for franchisors and franchisees is the billing capabilities of each service providers. In a typical franchise model, the franchisor does not want to receive or be responsible for the cost of the services that each franchisee consumes. That responsibility lies with each franchisee owner. However, the franchisor will definitely benefit from seeing a “billing statement” for each franchisee so that they can understand the expenses and make any suggestions necessary if a variance is detected.

Thus, each franchisee will benefit from receiving a separate invoice for their specific services and have the ability to make payment in whatever manner they desire (credit card, check or wire transfer). For a franchise owner that owns multiple franchise locations, they may want each location to be billed separately ot they may want to see billing statements for each location and a sub-totaled billing invoice for all their locations. With hundreds or even thousands of franchisee owners, the billing system for a cloud service provider must be robust and incredibly flexible to match the flexibility of the franchise model.

Franchise billing poses a unique challenge to cloud providers that have not invested in a fully customizable billing system. Being able to bill franchise owners separately from the franchise itself is critical for smooth operations and growth.

PanTerra’s Unified Cloud Services Ideally Suited to Franchises

In this section, we detail specific features and capabilities of the PanTerra unified cloud solution that are optimized for the franchise market from both the franchisor and franchisee perspectives.

Separately Customizable Billing Invoices and Statements

PanTerra’s powerful franchise optimized billing system is fully customizable with the following keyfeatures:

• Single or multiple configurable billing groups – Users within the account as well as account level features (such as fax numbers, toll free expenses, etc.) can be grouped into one or more “billing groups” which can have separate payment methods, billing addresses and contact information. Thus, a franchise account that has a single centralized billing structure can configure all users and account level features into a single billing group, or in the case of most franchise models, can configure separate billing groups for each location of the franchise (or any grouping they want such as regionally or even by franchisee). Users and account level items can easily be added, removed or moved between billing groups. This is one of the most powerful franchise optimized features of the PanTerra billing system.

• Separate customizable invoices and statements – Billing statements can be configured completely separate from billing invoices (which are the actual bills). This is extremely useful in a franchise model when the franchisor (or franchisee with multiple locations) wants to see a monthly statement (not a bill) that reflects their PanTerra costs. As an example. Each franchise location owner might receive and be responsible for their location-billing invoice, while the franchisor might want to get a master billing statement, sub-totaled by franchise location. This can all be configured and automatically generated within the PanTerra billing system!

• Sub-totaling invoices and statements – Invoice and statements can be rolled up under “parent” invoices or statements (with the exception that invoices cannot be rolled up under other invoices, as that would result in double charging). This is very powerful as franchisees with multiple locations can sub-total their expenses on a per location basis.

Each franchise owner might receive and be responsible for their invoice, while the franchisor might want to get a master billing statement, sub-totaled by franchise location. This can all be configured and automatically generated within the PanTerra billing system!

• Split billing of a line item – PanTerra’s billing system even allows a single line item such as a seat charge or a toll free line to be split among multiple billing groups. If, for example, you have an employee that splits his time between an east coast office and a west coast office and those offices are in two different billing groups, you can split the cost of that user’s seat charge between the two different billing groups.
• Support for multiple payment types – Each billing group can have its own payment type configured as well as its own billing address. This allows complete flexibility for franchisees to pay in whatever method they wish.

100% Cloud Infrastructure for Fast, Consistent, Flexible, Scalable Deployments

PanTerra’s 100% cloud infrastructure means fast, reliable, consistent deployments of franchise locations anywhere in the world. Each franchise location only has to have IP bandwidth connection, a QoS router and a local area network (LAN). They can have all their necessary IT services delivered from the PanTerra cloud instantly.

All cloud services are accessed via an IP connection, which can be an MPLS network (PanTerra can provide or the franchise can provide) or an open Internet connection. Mobile devices can connect via wireless LAN connection or through their mobile data carrier.

With virtually no local IT resources, a franchise location can be “turned on” within a matter of minutes and have access to multiple IT services including phone system, collaborations tools, file sync & share and even contact center and business analytics… all from the PanTerra cloud.

SIP desktop phones and conference phones are shipped pre-configured so they are simply plugged into the LAN and are fully operational. Mac and Windows desktops can access all services through a simple browser interface while mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets can simply download a feature rich mobile app from the respective app stores and gain access to all corporate communications, user files and even analytics (through a mobile unified live monitor).

Once the franchise location’s networking infrastructure is configured and verified, turning on all PanTerra cloud IT services is as simple as a click of a mouse. Instantly, the franchise has access to their communications, collaborations, file storage, contact center and analytics services. Should a franchise grow or even re-locate, re-establishing all IT services are a snap with PanTerra’s cloud. Once the new location has IP access (through an MPLS network or open Internet connection), all desktop and conference SIP phones can simply be plugged back into the network and they are operational!

Consistent communications features are also a big benefit of PanTerra’s cloud service. Location dialing plans or global dialing plans between all locations can be setup, allowing, for example, a common support department for multiple franchise offices with access from a centralized number. Complex auto attendants or location based auto attendants are also supported providing substantial benefits to the whole franchise operation also. Global user groups can be created once and shared among all the franchise locations.

Ultra-Reliable & Secure with Built-In Business Continuity Capability

While other providers simply move you to the cloud, PanTerra makes sure your services stay operational in the cloud 24 x 7 with the highest level of quality, reliability and security so that you safeguard your business and maximize revenue potential. Implementing a cloud IT service can be complex and challenging since there are many moving pieces including the cloud service itself, the bandwidth or connectivity to the cloud service, the networking equipment at each location and the end devices such as desk phones and mobile devices. Each one of these pieces plays a critical role in the overall operation and security of the cloud service. In fact, the overall reliability and security of the system is as weak as the weakest link, so making sure your cloud provider can evaluate, deliver, configure and optimize every piece of the solution is critical.

PanTerra delivers an end-to-end solution, not just the cloud service itself, to ensure maximum reliability and security. PanTerra will deliver, install, configure and manage the cloud service, MPLS or open Internet bandwidth, on-premise networking equipment and end points. This approach guarantees the highest level of reliability and security since each piece of the “cloud chain” is verified and optimized for security and reliability. And, with PanTerra’s business continuity features, even a catastrophic failure at any franchise location, such as a power outage or total connectivity loss cannot take the service down.

If an on-premise phone system or local power fails, all communications are lost and a business loses customers and revenue. With PanTerra’s ultra-reliable cloud service, no single failure of any component can take the service down.

PanTerra automatically re-routes all services to alternative mobile devices through alternative mobile networks. With PanTerra, security and reliability are an integral part of the solution, not an afterthought.

Multiple Cloud Services Simplify & Save

As a franchisor and franchisee, focusing on running the business is critical to success. Franchisees have little to no time or resources to spend on IT management. And, every dollar spent on the IT infrastructure is an expense dollar not directly contributing to revenue generation.

Franchises can save as much as 75% on their monthly IT expense with a PanTerra unified cloud solution versus multiple separate cloud service providers.

Yet in today’s competitive world, you need multiple IT services to win deals and be competitive. Business analytics, contact center, collaboration and engagement services are critical to the success of a franchise.

PanTerra delivers all your critical IT services reliably and securely as a single configurable unified solution, significantly reducing IT complexity and cost at each franchise location. Configure just the services you need on a user-by-user basis with the peace of mind that you can add additional services at any time with a few clicks of a mouse. With common billing, analytics, security and admin across all services, PanTerra’s unified cloud solution delivers the most optimized solution for franchises.

We are 100% Committed to Your Franchise’s Success

In today’s competitive fast moving business world, you need a cloud partner that is 100% focused on your franchise’s success. With our mission-critical business DNA, PanTerra delivers that 100% focus with a proven holistic approach that includes not just the cloud service itself, but all the necessary pieces of the solution to guarantee peace of mind that your IT services will deliver leading edge features with ultrareliable and secure operations, backed by world-class enterprise level support.

Migrating to the cloud has incredible benefits and PanTerra can get your franchise into the cloud faster, more reliably and secure than anyone else on the planet. Contact PanTerra (800.805.0558) directly or a PanTerra partner today and get a free  communications network assessment and live demo and see how your franchise can immediately benefit from PanTerra’s Unified Cloud Services.