Insure On The Spot (IOTS) is a Chicago-based insurance brokerage specializing in providing affordable coverage solutions—particularly high-risk auto insurance such as SR-22 filings. With a call center workforce of approximately 150 employees, the company’s operations depend entirely on reliable, high-performing phone systems to serve their customers and maintain business continuity.
The Problem
When Insure On The Spot set out to modernize their phone system, they selected a hosted solution from a third-party vendor, choosing aesthetics and cost over reliability and functionality. The system was implemented without Blackline’s continued involvement—against our original recommendations for a hybrid system anchored by physical phones. The result was a cascade of operational issues that undermined the company’s core function: customer communication.
Risks Identified:
- Frequent dropped calls and connectivity issues, especially in virtual desktop environments
- User experience challenges due to inconsistent softphone behavior and low technical proficiency among staff
- Excessive ticket volume, requiring constant IT intervention
- Poor device compatibility, worsened by use of non-approved headsets
- Lost business opportunities and reputational harm due to call center failures
Despite our early warnings, the company pursued a softphone-only implementation, leading to what became a two-year stretch of chronic telephony disruptions, internal frustration, and mounting support costs.
How We Solved It
The solution centered on practical, experience-driven architecture:
- Provisioned physical desk phones for all call center users
- Integrated RingCentral PBX with 5/9 call workflows to maintain continuity
- Replaced cheap, non-compliant headsets with approved models to eliminate compatibility issues
- Conducted extensive internal testing before rollout
- Transitioned high-maintenance softphone users to the physical phone infrastructure
This required both technical finesse and executive-level advocacy. Blackline leadership delivered detailed infrastructure diagrams, demonstrated root causes, and firmly advocated for the reversal of the client’s earlier decision.
While initially resistant, the client eventually recognized the ongoing cost of poor user experience, and agreed to the transformation plan.
The Outcome
Once deployed, the hard phone-based solution immediately stabilized the client’s environment:
- Dramatic reduction in support tickets related to voice and softphone issues
- Improved user satisfaction and productivity among call center reps
- Consistent call quality, with eliminated issues of dropped or misrouted calls
- Cost avoidance of up to $300,000 in lost productivity, customer churn, and troubleshooting over two years
- Operational alignment between IT infrastructure and business needs
Value Delivered
The IOTS engagement underscores a fundamental truth: technology decisions must align with operational realities—not vendor promises or surface-level appeal. Blackline’s consultative approach, technical depth, and insistence on aligning infrastructure to use case ultimately saved the client from further losses.
More importantly, it enabled their call center—one of the most critical components of their business—to function with confidence and consistency.
Key outcomes:
- Simplified voice ecosystem, reducing support load and internal confusion
- Operational continuity, achieved through physical redundancy
- A rebuilt trust relationship, forged through results, not rhetoric
Conclusion
The Insure On The Spot engagement exemplifies Blackline’s commitment to restoring operational confidence through strategic, user-centric technology integration. By replacing a failing softphone-only setup with a resilient hybrid architecture tailored to the realities of a high-volume call center, we didn’t just fix phones—we rebuilt performance, morale, and business continuity.
This case reaffirms a core Blackline philosophy: when technology is misaligned with business function, the costs are more than technical—they’re cultural and financial. Through our consultative rigor, technical precision, and unwavering advocacy for fit-for-purpose infrastructure, we transformed telephony from a point of pain into a pillar of productivity.
For clients navigating critical IT decisions, this outcome is a clear reminder: strategic alignment isn’t a luxury—it’s the foundation of sustainable performance.
