Westgate Resorts

The Company
More than 30 years ago, from a tiny Florida orange grove, in an office located in his family’s garage, David A. Siegel started a real estate development firm. Today, through vision, persistence, and resourcefulness, Siegel has grown Central Florida Investments, Inc. (CFI) into the largest privately-held corporation in Central Florida with investments in hotels, insurance, magazines, real estate, travel services, oil, cattle, and Internet companies.

The crown jewel of the CFI family, Westgate Resorts, was established in 1982 when Westgate Vacation Villas started sales one mile from Walt Disney World. Since that time it has become the largest privately-owned timeshare ownership company in the world, employing over 10,000 people throughout the U.S.

The Challenge
Westgate understands that owners are not just customers, they are family, and it is important to ensure they enjoy every visit to a Westgate property. IT field operations manager for Westgate Resorts, Kevin Nicholson knew a key to achieving this exceptional guest experience was superior communications between staff and guests. Nicholson could see the industry shift to unified communications and knew it was time to upgrade Westgate’s business operations.

Fortunately, Nicholson didn’t have to look far. He turned to the vendor Westgate had trusted with its communications for over 20 years.

ABOUT WESTGATE RESORTS
Type: Largest privately-held timeshare company in the world
Location: Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, with more than 20 resorts in premier travel locals throughout the U.S.
Founded: 1982
Number of employees: 10,000+
Website: www.westgateresorts.com

CUSTOMER NEEDS

Westgate Resorts needed a unified communication solution to:

• Enhance communications throughout corporate offices, contact centers, and sales centers to provide an exceptional guest experience
• Protect its existing telephony investment while taking advantage of IP applications
• Increase staff productivity
• Lower operating costs

SOLUTION COMPONENTS

• Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP) in each office and sales center
• Mitel IP phones
• Mitel Enterprise Manager
• Mitel Teleworker Solution
• Mitel Your Assistant™

RESULTS

• Migration strategy that allows
• Westgate to move to an IP solution at a pace that suits its business needs
• A return on investment in only three to four months
• Established IP backbone to handle call traffic coming into the contact center
• Save time and money with a video conferencing solution that reduces or eliminates travel for employee training sessions
• Easy-to-use and maintain system allows IT staff to work on other projects that help the company operate more efficiently