Spun out of Oxford University, Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) 4 years ago, Oxbotica https://www.oxbotica.ai/ write software for self driving cars.

Having built the company on sales only, headcount was already 70 in January 2019 trading from Galactic Headquarters in Summertown, Oxford with other offices in Culham near Abingdon. Having secured substantial funding, the business entered a phase of major expansion with significant numbers of new recruits focussed on writing software all of whom require business support in terms of infrastructure, finance, human resources etc.

Being a software business, Oxbotica employees are not major users of traditional office phone systems; indeed, the comment was made that many developers would regard a deskphone as “clutter”! Nonetheless there is a requirement for employees to access a phone system to facilitate conference calls, communicate with colleagues and suppliers plus make 999 calls which means a business requirement for conventional “phones on desks”.

Oxbotica were in the awkward position of running a single Oxford number with 2 extensions each with an analogue DECT phone meaning they were a start-up software business running a very limited and limiting legacy system. The growing business demanded a move to new premises, access to operations in Culham and further growth means it needs new offices for engineering, sales and admin. Wizards hosted 3CX was ideal as it is immediately portable to any new headquarters and accessible anywhere in the world. The business requires connection to pop up offices and additional discrete PBXs that could be hosted on behalf of clients such as the British Army. 3CX is ideal for this as these new PBXs could be spun up on client premises where hosting in the public cloud is not appropriate.

Oxbotica’s strengths lie in managing systems and hosting software; however between Oxbotica and Wizards the conclusion was reached that the quickest and easiest way of getting phones on desks was a 3CX PBX hosted in the Google Cloud transferring existing numbers across to the SIP trunk ensuring continuity of service while facilitating new numbers.

Oxbotica’s IT Manager Gareth Ardron said “Buying 3CX hosted by Wizards was an easy choice for us. We quickly saw we could easily build a system fit for the business regardless of how we grew or how big we became. What seemed an easy short term fix was also a powerful long term solution. Having rolled out phone systems before I needed something easy to implement, use and manage and we achieved just that. Wizards managed the transfer of the numbers, the system is stable and user acceptance has been universal and painless.”

Buckinghamshire based Wizards https://www.wizards.co.uk/ have been trading since 1994 and specialise in 3CX VoIP solutions.