Patterson Manufacturing Ratchets Up Customer Service With Comcast Business

PITTSBURGH, March 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Comcast Business today announced that Patterson Manufacturing, a Pittsburgh-based company that produces ratchets, winches, tensors and turnbuckles for the river barge industry, has selected Internet and cloud-based voice services from Comcast Business to support its engineering, manufacturing, sales and customer service operations. In addition to expediting the online transfer of bandwidth-intensive CAD/CAM files between the company's engineers and customers, these new services will be used to support the productivity of Patterson Manufacturing's increasingly mobile workforce.

Founded in 1858 on the banks of the Monongahela River, Patterson Manufacturing got its start doing blacksmith work and providing services for steam-powered paddle boats ferrying both people and cargo. It later began designing and producing towboat and barge winches, which continue to be two of the company's best sellers today. As the organization's customer base expanded and its workforce grew increasingly mobile over the years, its executives and sales reps needed a way to stay connected while selling products and solidifying partner relationships both domestically and overseas in Asia and South America. This traveling workforce, combined with a desire to ensure the timely transmission of large engineering design files to customers on a daily basis, led the organization to reassess both its voice and Internet services.

"We're constantly striving to stay on the cutting edge by being safer, easier and faster than our competition, both in how we design our products and how we operate as a company. These principles were mirrored by the team at Comcast Business, and we knew their solutions would also give us many advanced features that weren't previously possible with our old phone system," said Taylor Grapes, international sourcing and logistics manager for Patterson Manufacturing. "While voice service should be easy to use, our previous system made completing simple tasks like changing our voicemail messages feel like we were trying to crack da Vinci's code. By switching to Comcast, we can automatically forward calls to our cell phones, have them sent to email and retrieve them from any computer, and control everything from a mobile app – and that barely scratches the surface of our new system's advanced capabilities."

Patterson Manufacturing is currently using Comcast Business VoiceEdge, a cloud-based voice and unified communications solution that helps employees be productive even when they're away from their desks by delivering HD-quality voice service and an innovative user experience accessible via computers, desktop phones and mobile devices. The company is additionally using 50 Megabit-per-second (Mbps) Business Internet from Comcast, which will allow engineers to send and receive extremely large design files much faster than before as they collaborate with customers. This faster Internet service will also support the company's internal training initiatives conducted via live webcams, including 3D modeling system training and enterprise resource planning (ERP) tutorials.

"The telephone hadn't even been invented when Patterson Manufacturing first opened its doors, but its longevity and growth is a tribute to its ability to evolve and continually innovate to meet the needs of its customers worldwide," said Paul Savas, Northeast Division Senior Director for Comcast Business. "Our network was built for businesses like Patterson so they can use our advanced voice and Internet services to be more productive, respond to customers faster and stay connected virtually anywhere in the world without feeling as though they've even left the office."

About Comcast Business
Comcast Business, a unit of Comcast Cable, provides advanced communication solutions to help organizations of all sizes meet their business objectives. Through a next-generation network that is backed by 24/7 technical support, Comcast delivers Business Internet, Ethernet, TV and a full portfolio of Voice services for cost-effective, simplified communications management.

For more information, call 866-429-3085.

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About Comcast Cable
Comcast Cable is the nation's largest video, high-speed Internet and phone provider to businesses and residential customers. Comcast has invested in technology to build an advanced network that delivers among the fastest broadband speeds, and brings customers personalized video, communications and home management offerings. Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) is a global media and technology company. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.

SOURCE Comcast Business