Loopup Share Discussion Threads

[w1ndjammer] 28/10/2021 12:20

How an innovative player in the hospitality industry is increasing their international reach with LoopUp and Microsoft Teams Calling
Guestline is a SaaS provider working within the hospitality industry with over 25 years’ experience. Their intelligent property management solutions cover all aspects of running a hospitality business, from managing bookings and payments to tracking bar spend in guests’ rooms.

Market leaders in cloud-based hospitality technology, Guestline’s systems are currently employed in 25 countries – including 2,500 hotels in the United Kingdom.

Guestline is headquartered in England, with regional offices in Germany and Thailand. As their client base continues to grow, they are looking to expand their territories further. They needed a telephony platform that could keep pace with their plans. Guestline decided to migrate their communications to Microsoft Teams Calling.

Simon Larkin is Guestline’s project manager, responsible for overseeing every step of the company’s rollout to Microsoft Teams Calling. We spoke to him about how that journey was going:

‘We’re in the early days, but already it’s been transformational. We’re seeing a different picture with Teams Calling. A core component of our business is our call centre, which needs to react immediately and precisely to support our clients the moment they need us. At any time, we’ll have 30-40 people on the support desk. There are a lot of calls coming in. Every call needs to be answered straightaway. It’s a complex operation.

With the improved call functionality that we’re now experiencing with Microsoft Teams Calling and LoopUp, not only is it more streamlined for our employees, we’ve estimated the reduced IT costs mean we’re operating with a saving of £2,000 a month. So, the migration is already proving successful for us.’

Supporting Guestline’s global territories
Guestline’s SaaS platform is currently used in 25 countries across five continents. The company’s diverse geographic footprint was a key driver in their decision to adopt Teams Calling.

‘We have 232 employees. We’re headquartered in the UK, but we also have offices in Germany, Ireland, Thailand and the Netherlands, with remote teams elsewhere in countries including Russia, France and Spain. Many of our developers, for instance, are based in Poland.’

Guestline needed a cloud telephony solution that would embrace all their employees in all of their locations. They also needed a solution that would allow their business to easily scale upwards to include new employees and new countries.

‘For our business, it’s essential we have the flexibility to scale and grow as, and where, we need to,’ explains Simon.

Guestline were previously using Teams for internal collaboration and meetings but fulfilling their cloud telephony via Skype for Business. There was never a question of leaving Microsoft, but Skype wasn’t the ideal fit for the company’s rising momentum.

‘We’re a Microsoft company through and through,’ says Simon. ‘Teams is our official means of communication, and we use it far more than email. But Skype for Business doesn’t really scale globally in the way we needed. The Teams VoIP does. Teams Calling enables us to go to a new country very simply.

Partnering with LoopUp
Was choosing LoopUp to be their provider an equally straightforward decision?

‘In a word, yes. We did talk to another provider in the beginning. But when we spoke with LoopUp, we knew straightaway that we were getting a different level of help. From that first conversation it was a different level of support. It was night and day really.’

With Guestline’s geographic footprint, international telephony is business critical. ‘It’s very, very important, agrees Simon. ‘Both internally and externally. We need reliability we can trust.

‘Previously we were experiencing serious outages. We had a few occasions where there were minutes of having no phone system at all. It was frustrating, and we felt like we had no control. Since working with LoopUp, we honestly haven’t had a single one.’

Guestline was also experiencing challenges resolving issues or making changes. ‘If anything went wrong, it was a slow process to fix,’ explains Simon. ‘We had to raise a ticket and wait. That is definitely not the case now. And we’re confident we could set up a new office, and get new numbers straightaway. It’s going to be a lot easier to set up regional offices from now on – wherever we want to go.’

Guestline are still in the early stages of Teams Calling, but they are already noting positive outcomes throughout the business.

‘The whole user experience is better with Microsoft Teams Calling, instead of having different apps to log into, now we have just the one. Everything is there in the one place. I was the first user to be switched over at Guestline and from that first day it’s just made everything easier.

‘My advice to any other business considering a similar move is to run a small proof of concept. All you need is a handful of users to see how Teams Calling works. They’ll see straightaway how good it is, and how integrated the VoIP is. How it can make everything simpler.’

Completing the global migration to Microsoft Teams Calling
When we spoke to Simon, the deadline to have remaining global Guestline employees fully transitioned to Microsoft Teams Calling was less than three months away. Was he worried?

‘Not at all. We feel very confident. We’re testing now and everything is working exactly as we’d hoped. It’s going great. Migrating the rest of our staff should be easy.

‘LoopUp have a great team. Their knowledge of Microsoft is unbeatable. LoopUp have explained everything and have been helpful all the way through. They have been very detailed, very organised and very thorough – and always available to us, they are incredibly responsive.

As a partner, LoopUp have been great.’

[kirk 6] 28/10/2021 11:41

Well isn't that fantastic. So after the share price has been obliterated you set up an account a month ago to tell us this. Talk about too late ffs.

[team cheltenham] 28/10/2021 11:01

I worked in this space for 20 years, I know most of the players, I know a lot about Loop Up and even more about their recentish acquisition Meeting Zone. In short, Loop Up revenue was heavily influenced by people dialing into a conference call, when dialing in was switching to digital meetings on any device. They tried but most of the clients Loop Up would have had already had digital collaboration options - they had MS Teams or Cisco WebEx ready to go, these solution often as not weren't used because Microsoft or Cisco never really managed their accounts so whilst a lot of users had the solution on their desktop or mobile device they never used them; they stuck with what they knew and knew how to use. Mind, if they didn't have them IT managers were rushing to them (MS and Cisco). Loop Up also had digital offerings but it's a difficult move from one solution (dialing in) that had a 70% - 80% margin to one (digital) that was nearer 20% - so going digital was never really encouraged. but most IT managers would choose one of the biggies before Loop Up, that's not to say they didn't have the odd success. However numbers started to head South, so what to do? Go to market for a fund raise and buy another legacy telco company for the sort of multiples of EBITDA you'd expect for a successful software outfit. MeetingZone were even more reliant on telephone call revenue. They did partner with both MS and Cisco as a reseller but they were on small margins. The acquisition looked good on paper but scratch away and it was rotten. I don't see where Loop Up can go from here - the market has been swallowed up by the big players and there's some niche stuff doing well but Loop Up aren't in that game. I know people that work there, good people, good at their jobs too but this is all about maintenance now. Just like all the other players in the conferencing space, the good years were 2000 - 2017, it was a free for all, massive margins, all telephone centric. But the digital transformation hit the industry fast and most were left chasing their legacy clients who were switching to Teams and WebEx. As a sales mgr most of my meetings in 2017 were trying to persuade clients to stay with us and start using our digital offering; some did, a lot left. Loop Up were no different, nor Meeting Zone. I know some of the senior guys at MZ couldn't believe what they were bought for. I was at another company who did some deep dd on MZ as they wanted to buy them (they'd been up for sale for years), at the time we walked away from it because the price was way too high and it was a price much much lower than what Loop Up paid. But they were desperate - like the stock price.

[timbo003] 27/10/2021 10:22

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Who else offers this?

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[dave4545] 27/10/2021 09:33

fwiw spread is 22-23p but it's 22.7p bid so not often you see a mm bidding way higher than mid price

[terminator101] 27/10/2021 07:27

What better products? Literally anything out there rather than the dross this lot produce

[timbo003] 26/10/2021 15:45

>>>rayfenn, what better products are available for a multinational company which requires coverage in multiple territories for secure business telephony and business critical meetings?

[kirk 6] 26/10/2021 15:01

Big position just been taken

[1224saj] 26/10/2021 15:00

Orange1, are you Steve Flavell :-)

[1224saj] 26/10/2021 14:58

Orange1, is that why they've dropped 5% today?

[the monkster] 26/10/2021 13:48

an utter irrecoverable shambles in my view

[orange1] 26/10/2021 13:38

It's been a tough time for them. Now they are newly energised and ready to rumble. Everyone a winner.

[1224saj] 26/10/2021 12:48

How the hell can the BOD award themselves options when they have failed their investors. Stock down 80% since Jan, oh let's give ourselves some shares with no risk!!

[dros1] 26/10/2021 11:30

from last results page 11


Cloud telephony revenue: H121 £1.2m vs H120 £1.4m
i was expecting to see growth hear

[terminator101] 26/10/2021 07:08

Nice of them to award themselves options at 0.25p. If the share price tanks they take zero risk and if the share price goes up they can sell their options and use the cash to cover the options fee. Skin in the game (not)

[kirk 6] 25/10/2021 11:32

Better volume at least. Hoping for a recovery back to between 85-95p

[average down mug] 25/10/2021 09:55

🍑🤥🍑 lol I’ll keep a watch for now gla

[ny boy] 25/10/2021 09:24

Some bottom sniffers around

[dave4545] 25/10/2021 08:44

No quote for even 5000 shares at 23p now

So at times it pays to buy stocks when big overhangs and offering size at near bid prices like this last week around 22.1p

[dave4545] 25/10/2021 08:24

Why not make some money T and buy some, the price is edging towards full offer from a all time low base, could make a safe 2p here and some easy money

[terminator101] 22/10/2021 18:29

Only one I could find was this one. Given by an escapee of zz top https://loopup.com/en/resource-center/webcasts/episode-3-deploying-teams-calling-internationally/

[timbo003] 22/10/2021 11:14

For those who are interested in these sort of things, the on-line offer price has nudged up from 22.14 to 22.22p