Domino’s Pizza

Running a take-out and delivery pizzeria is a whirlwind of a business. From lunch through to late-night it’s a bustling operation with phones ringing off the hook and walk-up customers waiting in line.

Charlie Balasingam knows this only too well. He owns a Domino’s Pizza franchise in downtown Toronto on College St. He has operated the business for the past eight years.

Charlie was tired of spending all day and then long evenings at the pizzeria, managing staff and keeping an eye on the operations.

“We are located in a plaza and there aren’t any other company’s open there at night so I didn’t feel right leaving my staff there alone for safety reasons,” explains Charlie.

So he came up with a solution: install a surveillance system in the pizzeria. Hopefully a camera would deter anyone from causing trouble with staff and make potential thieves think twice about robbing the business. The camera downloads the video via the Internet so he could keep an eye on the business from home by logging on to his computer and viewing the video.

Beyond the purchase of the surveillance system, Charlie also required an Internet connection at the pizzeria.

He already had phone service with Allstream, so Charlie checked with the company, as well as their competition, to compare prices for installing an Internet connection.

“I looked around and Allstream Small Business was the cheapest,” says Charlie. “The overall savings are substantial.”

Allstream Small Business offers companies like Charlie’s pizzeria affordable and flexible solutions to meet their needs by giving them a choice of four bundles, based on the size and scope of their communications requirements.

The pizzeria required phone and fax lines and an Internet connection so Charlie chose the Phone + Net 1 bundle that is tailored to the communications needs of smaller businesses.

This bundle comes with High Speed Internet service and two phone lines (with two calling features), plus 1,000 U.S. and Canadian long distance minutes, as well as a personalized Internet domain name, email accounts, webmail access, and security software.        

Allstream Small Business recognizes that companies often have very specific communications requirements depending on the type of product or service they sell. But rather than forcing a client to move up to a bigger bundle -- which may include services they don’t need – Allstream Small Business allows them to customize their bundle by adding individual phone, fax and Internet features on to the package. This gives small businesses the tools they need at a price they can afford.

The pizzeria takes most of its orders by phone and fax, so Charlie selected two additional phone lines plus a fax line from the list of add-ons, which were added to his bundle to handle the high volume of calls at the pizzeria.

“This way I only paid for the services I wanted,” he says. 

And not only did Allstream Small Business offer the most competitive price, Charlie also liked the fact that he could combine his phone and Internet service in one monthly bill -- which means less paperwork and time spent on accounting.

“I am really busy so having one bill saves me time,” says Charlie. “It is a small thing but it is very helpful.”

The surveillance camera is installed and the Internet is up and running at the Domino’s franchise. And with dependable access and network availability via Allstream’s world-class fibre-optic network, Charlie is now able to leave earlier in the evening, knowing that his staff are safe and that he can check online from home at any time to make sure everything is running smoothly.

“I haven’t had any problems with the service -- it has been very reliable,” he says. “So I feel okay going home and leaving my staff in charge. It is nice not having to spend all night at my business.”