Industries › Mining
VOCPhone for Mining
Sites, camps and contractors in four states, on one switchboard.
Resources operations run across enormous distances with rotating crews, layered contractors and communications that have to work where nothing else does. The phone system is either infrastructure or it is a liability.
Roster aware routing, so calls follow who is on shift
Keep every number you already advertise
We own and run the network, so uptime is ours to fix
Australian owned, hosted and supported, 15+ years in market
Priority · routed to shift super
Mon 5:40am
Your operation05:40
Coordinator on a mobilisation callOne person, one call, a queue behind it.engaged
Contractor confirming crew mobilisationFlights and rosters depend on it.12s26s41s56slost
Supplier about a critical partEquipment down until it arrives.06s14s22s31slost
One crew mobilised. One crew delayed, one machine still down.
Said out loud on every site
You have said at least four of these this quarter
These are operational continuity problems that arrive down a phone line.
01
Rosters make directories wrong
Who to call for a given site changes every rotation. A printed list is out of date immediately.
Roster aware routing, so calls follow who is actually on shift.
02
Coverage is genuinely difficult
Sites, camps and haul roads have coverage ranging from good to nonexistent.
Cloud answering plus apps over any data connection, including satellite.
03
Contractors multiply the complexity
Layers of contractors and subcontractors, each with their own crews and urgency.
Separate queues per contractor stream, with priority for anything operational.
04
Critical part calls cannot wait
A supplier with the part that returns a machine to service is the most valuable call of the day.
Priority routing that jumps every other queue.
05
Shift changes create call storms
Twice a day everybody needs to reach somebody, and switchboard becomes a bottleneck.
Unlimited simultaneous answering, so shift change stops queueing.
06
Audit trails matter here more than anywhere
Safety, compliance and contractual disputes all require knowing who was told what and when.
Every call recorded, transcribed and logged on our own Australian network.
Watch one get handled
4:10am. Shift change. The critical part call connects.
This is the call that used to sit in a queue. Here it is answered by a VOCPhone AI phone agent, from what you told it about your operation.
It sounds like it is from here. Genuine Australian accents, which matters to crews and contractors.
It knows your sites and rosters. Which site, which crew, who is on shift and who is on their week off.
It prioritises operational calls. A machine down call jumps every queue, by design.
It logs everything onshore. Which matters for safety, compliance and contract disputes.
VPVOCPhone AI Agent Inbound · 00:44LIVE
AgentGood morning, you have reached Karrata Operations. How can I direct your call?
SupplierI have the hydraulic pump for the excavator that is down at the northern pit. I need to confirm freight.
AgentThat is an equipment down matter, so I will treat it as priority. Which unit number is the pump for?
SupplierUnit 412.
AgentThank you. Unit 412 is at the northern pit and the maintenance superintendent on shift is contactable now. Putting you through and sending him the part and unit number ahead of the call.
SupplierGreat, thanks.
AgentConnecting you now. I have logged this against unit 412 so the maintenance record shows when the part was confirmed.
What happened at four in the morning
- Answered instantly rather than queueing behind shift change traffic
- Recognised as equipment down and prioritised over everything else
- Routed to the superintendent actually on shift
- Logged against the unit number for the maintenance record
The number nobody tracks
Downtime is thousands per hour, and it often starts with a phone call
In resources the cost of a communication failure is not a lost sale, it is idle equipment, delayed mobilisation and rosters that no longer line up with flights.
1Equipment downtime dominates everything. A critical part call that does not connect can leave a machine idle for a shift.
2Mobilisation is a chain of dependencies. Crews, flights, camps and inductions all depend on decisions confirmed by phone, often at odd hours.
3Rosters mean the right person changes constantly. Two weeks on, one week off, across multiple sites. A static phone directory is wrong most of the time.
Downtime at risk, per weekIllustrative. Put your own numbers in.
Inbound calls1,400
Reached the right person890
Misrouted or rang out510
Share that were operationally criticalx 0.12
Operationally critical calls that did not connect61
Cost per hour of delay$1,100
Lost per week$67,100
Lost per yearExtremely significant
Change the two highlighted lines to your own figures. The arithmetic is the point, not our example. That assumes one hour of delay per failed critical call, which is conservative.
One number, an operation behind it
An equipment down call should never queue behind an induction question
Publish one number. Behind it, operational calls are prioritised, contractors have their own streams, and routing follows the roster rather than a printed list.
Live call being routedOverflow and after hours to the AI agent
Operational peaks
Shutdowns and mobilisations create call storms
Resources call volume spikes hard around shutdowns, mobilisations and shift changes. Those are precisely when getting the right person on the phone matters most and is hardest.
An AI agent answers unlimited simultaneous calls, routes by roster, and prioritises anything operational, so a shutdown does not turn your switchboard into the bottleneck for the whole operation.
Inbound calls across an operational yearshape, not scale
What your coordinators can realistically answer Overflow the AI agent picks up
Illustrative shape based on typical shutdown and mobilisation cycles. Your own curve depends on your operation.
It plugs into what you already run
Your phone should know which site is calling
VOCPhone connects to more than a thousand apps and offers open APIs, so a call arrives with a contractor attached to it rather than just a number.
SalesforceHubSpotZohoXeroMondayGoogle WorkspaceMicrosoft 365SlackOpen APIs for the rest
Screen pops before you say hello
The caller's name, their history and their open work order appear as it rings, so you open with their name instead of asking who is calling.
Click to call from the record
Ring a contractor straight from your maintenance or ERP system without typing a number, and every call logs itself against the right file.
Notes that write themselves
Recording, transcript, AI summary and next action land in your CRM. Untimed HD video for up to 30 people is included when a call needs faces.
Why VOCPhone
One provider, one network, one bill
Most providers sell you a phone system that runs on infrastructure they rent. We built ours, which changes what we can promise.
We own the network
Not a reseller reselling somebody else's switch. VOCPhone owns and operates its own Australian network, which is why we can guarantee 99.99% uptime and fix things ourselves.
AI phone agents that sound Australian
Inbound and outbound agents trained on your business. They answer, qualify, book and escalate, in a genuine Australian accent, at any hour.
Desk, desktop and pocket
Apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, plus certified desk and cordless handsets. Untimed HD video for up to 30 people comes with it.
Australian, and answerable
Australian owned, Australian hosted, 24/7 human support, 15+ years in this market, and a price-match guarantee if you find better.
Straight answers
The questions resources operations ask us first
Can routing follow our rosters?
Yes, and for a rotating workforce it is the single most valuable capability. Call flows can route by site, by shift, by day of roster and by on call arrangement, so a call at 4am reaches whoever is genuinely on shift.
Where your rostering system can be reached through an integration or an API, that can drive routing directly.
Will it work at remote sites?
The apps work over any data connection, which in practice means fixed wireless, satellite and site networks as well as mobile. Critically, the agent answers in the cloud, so a caller is never left ringing out because of coverage.
Because we own and operate the network, we can talk to you about the actual call path rather than guessing at a wholesaler's.
Can operational calls be prioritised absolutely?
Yes. Equipment down, safety and mobilisation calls can be configured to jump every other queue and to attempt multiple destinations in sequence until somebody answers.
That is very different behaviour from a normal business queue, and it is exactly what a shutdown needs.
What happens when the AI cannot help?
It hands over, and you decide where. Any safety incident, any contractual matter and any media enquiry can go to a person, a queue, or a manager's mobile.
The caller does not repeat themselves either. Whoever picks up gets the context the agent already gathered. Outside hours it takes the details, texts a confirmation and queues the callback.
What difference does owning the network actually make?
Most providers resell somebody else's switch, which means when something breaks they raise a ticket with a wholesaler and wait, exactly like you would. VOCPhone built and runs its own Australian network, so we fix it ourselves.
It is also why we can put a number on uptime and offer a price match. There is no reseller margin stacked in the middle of your bill.
We run more than one site. Does that work?
That is where it earns its keep. Advertise one number and we route behind it by site, by time of day and by queue, with overflow so a call at a flat out site rings somewhere quieter.
Each site can keep its own greeting and direct number. Reporting rolls up across all of them.
Do we have to change our phone number?
No. Number portability is standard, including 1300 and 1800, so the number on every published site, camp and contractor number stays exactly as it is.
We port it across and plan the cutover around your hours, not ours.
Voice over Cloud
Make the phone system part of the operation, not a risk to it
Book fifteen minutes. Show us how calls reach your sites today, and we will show you the version that follows the roster.
1300 663 222 · vocphone.com · Australian owned and operated