Toys"R"Us is an American based Company, that embraces the retailing of children's merchandise; the provision of juvenile and baby products through a 'supermarket environment' in 'out of town' complexes. Introduced into the UK during the middle of the 1980s, they have opened approximately 4 to 5 stores a year over the past 14 years. They have a policy of centralising all industrial buying [all aspects of capital goods purchased, items classified as fixed to the building]. The telephone system falls into this category.

A critical aspect of opening a new Toys"R"Us store, is being able to meet the tight time constraints. With the supply of a telephone system, this has to be complemented by a reliable product and a highly flexible and skilled installation and support team.

During their early years, Toys"R"Us used BT products and support services. In about 1988 Toys"R"Us decided to move away from BT, they judged the level of service to be too variable to meet their critical business requirements.

This followed a phase of Toys"R"Us purchasing directly from Plessey the PKS2 product [a telephone switch, the DXE, badged from Nitsuko]. It was during this period that Telecom Midlands Limited became involved, contracted for installation and maintenance support. On the creation of GPT, following the merger between Plessey and Siemens, the PKS2 product was dropped in favour of the Siemens Hicom switch. It was at this point that Nitsuko decided to establish their own distribution centre in the UK to supply the product under the DXE brand through a network of independent dealers. Telecom Midlands Limited was appointed as a Nitsuko dealer.

Meanwhile, at Toys"R"Us the 12 Hicom switches order and the 9 installed, did not prove to be the success anticipated. Recognising the need to supply a reliable switch Toys"R"Us asked Telecom Midlands Limited to remove the Hicom switches and replace them with the Nitsuko DXE range. Progressively, all of the existing switches have been replaced with Nitsuko products, in addition to the new stores opened.

Currently, Telecom Midlands Limited maintains over 60 Toys"R"Us sites across the UK, and has recently worked with the customer to install new and innovative means of improving their operation. During 1998, Toys"R"Us and Telecom Midlands Limited developed a programme for the evaluation of Cordless Telephone usage. From lessons learnt on the pilot installation, twenty stores have now been equipped with handsfree/headset working for their sales floor staff and storeroom operatives.

The Sanctuary Housing Association is a Charitable Trust initially set up to assist in the provision of low cost housing schemes. Due to mergers and various local governments emphasise and de-emphasises on assisted housing schemes, the Sanctuary Housing Association has become one of the top housing associations in the United Kingdom.

A recent development has been their diversification under the brand name Sanctuary Care, into purpose built Private Nursing Homes, either attracting their own fee paying guests or providing a shared facility with the National Health Service.

Based in Hertfordshire, Sanctuary Housing Association also diversified into managing housing schemes for various local councils, significantly increasing their property portfolio. This obliges them to undertake all aspects of a managed scheme, such as refurbishment, maintenance and the handling of every type of enquiry service. From having to meet the needs of their paying guests in their nursing homes, to the heavy demands from tenants to attend to house maintenance through-out the year, Sanctuary Housing Association places a great dependency on the reliability and functionality of their telephone systems. As it is the number one interface to their customers, suppliers and the Associations own support staff.

Telecom Midlands Limited has been associated with the Sanctuary Housing Association for over 10 years supplying almost all of the Associations Telecommunication's [Systems and associated equipment] needs. Using Nitsuko manufactured equipment, Telecom Midlands Limited have supplied, installed, trained, maintained and provided consultancy for twenty nine [29] Sanctuary Housing Association locations though-out England. At the time of writing, Telecom Midlands Limited are contracted to provide additional new installations for Sanctuary Care and have been asked to provide advice relating to call logging software and VoIP solutions to compliment the Nitsuko telephone systems.