SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Les White is not your typical quick service restaurant owner operator. He has 25 Subway sandwich shops in Arizona and White insists he’s in the people business rather than the sandwich making business.
White, dressed in cowboy hat and tan leather jacket, also admitted that he knows next to nothing about technology and just learned how to send and receive e-mail a while ago. “I thought RAM was a big sheep,� he said of his IT ignorance.
But it is technology that is alllowing White to continue his business philosophy and save his shops more than $500,000 a year.
Using a Cisco Unified Communications system, along with Unified 7970G IP phones and a Cisco Media Convergence server running Unified CallManager and Unity Voice Messaging, White has been able to reconnect with the majority of his 400 employees.
“I do not like paper work or menial tasks. To have a manager spend time on that takes away from building a business. Front line people need to learn people and life skills and I have always been interested in sharing with individuals,â€? White said.
One of White’s challenges at Subway is dealing with an employee based made up of 16 to 22-year olds. “All of them are a different animal than older professional type people who are self motivated and are headed towards something. These kids have no idea where they are going. They have school issues, drug issues, relationship issues and all sorts of peer pressures,â€? White said.
As White began increasing the number of Subway franchises he said he lost the one-to-one personal communication he had with front line employees.
With this technology, along with a custom-built application called IPsession from Minnesota-based ISV IPcelerate, White was able to communicate directly to each employee every day. Currently, White delivers a lesson of the day and recognizes a top employee using this system.
Calence, a Cisco Gold partner from Phoenix, planned and designed the system for White’s shops.
Each system costs US$13,000 per shop. When White opens his next five shops the cost of this system will drop down to US$3,000 per shop.
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