John Davies knows all about handling different people’s conflicting needs.

He was a London Metropolitan Police sergeant in his first career.

In his spare time, he’s now a rugby referee. Indeed, Davies has dodged a lot of footwear and elbows in his time.

But these days, he mostly meets people on their best behaviour while doing his work as a telecom consultant for Schooley Mitchell.

Schooley Mitchell partners John Davies (l) and Dave Schultz put their vast knowledge of the telecommunications industry to work for their customers.

Davies is still in the familiar intermediary role, using his skills to assess the telecom needs of his business clients and sorting out the best equipment and services available in a complex, competitive industry.

He and his business partner David Schultz – like Davies, a veteran of several major telephone companies – run the Calgary office of Schooley Mitchell, a company with more than 150 locations across North America.

The company’s work has expanded rapidly since the mid-1990s because businesses of all sizes need accurate, unbiased advice about their telephone systems and telecom equipment for data, Internet, cellular, long-distance, wireless and other services.



“We fill a niche that the market is creating in several ways, one of which is the changes in technology,” explains Davies, who attended universities in England and Canada and holds a master of science degree in computer integrated manufacturing.

“As those changes become more prevalent, it becomes more confusing, and people in business don’t necessarily know the right solution for their business.”

That applies to one-person operations all the way up to large corporations.

Davies and Schultz typically meet with a business manager, assess the existing telecom systems and how they are used, and consider future requirements.

The Schooley Mitchell consultants match the client’s needs with precisely the right system available from a wide variety of manufacturers and suppliers and ensure it is installed and running properly.

“We’re in a consultative role, we’re not in a sales role,” Davies says.

One example would be a business’s call centre. Are potential customers easily getting through, or do they often hear a busy signal?

“A busy signal isn’t the sound of somebody not getting through – it’s the sound of lost revenue,” Davies says.

Voicemail can be a solution, but as every consumer knows, voicemail is either a benefit or an irritation, depending on how a business uses it.

“We look at how you want it. Your customers want to interact with you as a business, so let’s get the right technology to make that happen.”

Until Davies reaches the recommendation stage, the meter isn’t even running when the client chooses the “no-risk service” option.

“It’s only if the client likes the recommendations, and says ‘Go ahead and implement,’ is there a cost, and that cost for our service is fully recovered from the recommendation that we make. So we’re actually a profit centre if someone brings us in, not a cost centre.” Davies can be reached at jdavies@schooleymitchell.com and at 589-3777 in Calgary. For Schultz, it’s dschultz@schooleymitchell.com and 585-9602.