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Impact Confections: A Pricey Outdated Phone System Gets a Modern Upgrade

The maker of WARHEADS® and Circus Peanuts replaces a legacy Mitel on-premise system with RingCentral — cutting telecom costs, eliminating third-party vendors, and getting the whole organization up and running in under two months.

The Challenge

Impact Confections was running a legacy Mitel on-premise phone system that had become cost-prohibitive, difficult to maintain, and incapable of supporting the features a modern manufacturing and distribution operation requires.

The Solution

CTPros audited the existing environment, guided the platform evaluation, and executed a full RingCentral UCaaS migration — completing the entire process in under two months.

About Impact Confections

Impact Confections has been making candy since 1981. Based in Janesville, Wisconsin, the company's brands include MELSTER CANDIES®, maker of the iconic Circus Peanuts marshmallow candy, and WARHEADS®, the most recognized sour candy brand in the U.S. With operations spanning warehousing, distribution, and customer service, Impact's communications infrastructure has to work across every part of the organization — not just at a desk.

A Mitel System That Couldn't Keep Up With the Business

IT Manager Marc Gierach had watched the legacy Mitel/ShoreTel on-premise system age out of usefulness for long enough. What had once been a serviceable platform was now a liability — cost-prohibitive to maintain, requiring extra on-site equipment and real estate, and lacking the features that modern UCaaS platforms treat as standard. Communication costs were rising, the system was increasingly difficult to secure and update, and it wasn't giving employees or customers the experience the business needed to deliver.

The platform's limitations were felt across departments. Warehouse staff, distribution teams, and customer service were all hampered by a system that only worked at a desk and couldn't scale or flex with the business. For a manufacturer that needed flexibility across every part of the operation, the Mitel system had become an obstacle rather than an asset.

CTPros had worked with Impact Confections on the previous system — which meant Gierach knew exactly who to call. That existing relationship and shared history of the environment made CTPros the obvious choice to lead the transition.

CTPros Senior Account Executive Scott Dressel led the engagement, starting with a clear-eyed assessment of what Impact Confections actually needed from a modern communications platform. CTPros engineers audited the current environment — documenting how the technology was being used and where it was falling short — before presenting a transparent comparison of cloud options with cost and feature breakdowns for each.

RingCentral was the clear choice. The return on investment was the deciding factor — adopting RingCentral cut company telecom costs significantly. Ease of use, ease of administration, and the flexibility to deploy across the warehouse, distribution center, and customer service operation sealed it.

CTPros Technical Account Manager Eric Collins took over from there, managing the full implementation in-house — configuring the system, porting numbers, and providing training to leadership and staff across the organization. The entire process, from kickoff to go-live, took less than two months.

Reducing Third-Party Vendors and Loving the Ease of Communication

The results exceeded what Gierach had originally expected. His initial assumption was that they'd use RingCentral the same way they'd used the old system — as a phone system. What the team discovered was a platform that changed how the whole organization communicates.

  • The platform works from any device with an internet connection — warehouse, distribution, office, or remote — so communication doesn't stop when someone leaves their desk
  • Third-party vendors for fax and warehouse paging were eliminated, with everything consolidated into a single app and reducing the app overload the team had been managing
  • Staff can now take business calls from personal devices through the app without sharing a personal phone number — a meaningful quality-of-life change for the team

Call quality improved. Advanced features the old Mitel system never had are now in regular use. The team is more efficient and productive, and customer service has improved as a result. Telecom costs dropped significantly.

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